Animation Context Essay Development #3

This is the segment of the final product for this module that I was most excited for completing, as I enjoy graphic design and we had an opportunity to design our own magazine spread consisting of the article which we have written. Although, I was hesitant at first as I am going to be using a program which is completely foreign to me, which is 'InDesign', fortunately though, it's controls and commands are very similar to a program I am much more competent with, 'Photoshop'. 

During one of Johny's sessions, we were taught about guidelines which nearly all professional magazine abide by, which consists of three columns, accompanied by a unspecified number of rows, but typically between 5-7. In the areas that these guides provide (minus the typically 3mm margin gap), text, titles, images and negative space can be inserted, which can spread out vertically, horizontally or both to occupy connecting squares with the same content. Rarely should anything overlap into already occupied areas and text and imagery should typically fill out the spaces that they're occupying. I have found a very helpful image from google which lists a lot of possible compositions for magazine pages utilising this grid.

I really like these setups, and I wish I would have known about these margins before, as they would have saved me a lot of time because I wouldn't have to fiddle around with size and composition in order to find the ideal look as I would have the guides supplied for me, making me a much more efficient worker. Also, due to the fact that the same grids can be applied to every page within a multi-page layout, it will be easy to maintain the same style and format throughout the entire piece of work, therefore giving a sense of cohesivity. These guides are also meant to assure the pages don't become cluttered and therefore irritating and unappealing to read. I have put this to the test by looking at an example of a page from an old magazine which I used to follow monthly and an article regarding a singer I like in order to see if they too follow this system.

Page from 'Playstation Official Magazine UK'

Page from a magazine with a feature about Avril Lavigne

It comes to no shock to me that both these examples follow the grid system, both having three columns which text run down and imagery lined up when them. It's interesting to note that both these examples have one side of the double page spread consisting nearly entirely of a singular photo of the subject that they are focusing on, this may because they are the on of the central features within their respective magazines, therefore they draw out their content.

Though I knew how to layout my magazine pages, I still hadn't decided upon a style or colour scheme. As my illustration style is reminiscent of 'The Ricky Gervais Show', when designing graphical projects I typically use a colour scheme, style and font which accompanies it well and is similarly used in promotional material for 'The Ricky Gervais Show'. So as I am so used to this style, I decided to incorporate it into my magazine design, however it wasn't until I made the title, subtitle and background that I realised many problems with the design and why it wouldn't be suitable in this context.

My first draft of the front page, without the imagery

After looking at this design from afar, I realise that its not as eye catching as I intended it to be, as I feel I need to opt for a more bold typeface and colour scheme, as this is too fancy and cartoony which is fine when accompanying small pieces of text and imagery, but not for an entire essay. Due to the fact that a stylised square is used as a backdrop for the feature text, in order to ensure consistency in terms of design I would have to implement this across all text within the article, which would interfere with the grid system, and as I am still new to this program and the grid system, I don't want to get too experimental with the composition.

This was when I decided to look towards the internet for inspiration. One of the main topics covered in my essay is South Park, and it was the driving force behind making me want to select this topic, so I decided to have a look at their official website to see if I could take any inspiration in terms of design and layout.

Screenshot of the South Park Studios home page

A test title page to experiment with new style

Though I feel this page has little to be desired in terms of layout and composition, I admire the style and design, as I feel it communicates South Park perfectly, as it is bold, clear and 'in-your-face', just like the content of the show itself. It was as this point that I then decided to take this design and colour scheme, and implement it into a much more simple layout, using the examples that I shown earlier in this post. I was satisfied with this style, the only alteration I wanted to make to it was the background, as I didn't like the idea of the magazine being printed onto black, because unappealing white boarders would have inadvertently been made around the sides of each page when printing off the magazine, as I am unable to carry out professional printing methods, and I feel as though the imagery would stand out more against a white background. This meant the colour scheme had to be altered, as yellow doesn't stand out when put against white. Now that I am sorted on my design, I can now start producing the final product.

Page one (spelling error on title is fixed on hand in)

Pages two and three

Pages four and five 

Page 6

There were things which I tried my best to ensure whilst design this layout, which were;
- I wanted the quotes from other sources that I found to be the most relevant and supporting of my piece to be enlarged, in order for people to gain interest to read on after reading that key bit of text.
- I wanted imagery so align up to the segments of the text where the subject matter of the image is referenced, therefore reducing the need of long captions and making it easier for the observers to be lead towards an image regarding what they have just read.
- I wanted there to be a range of different sizes of images, in order to draw attention to more important images
- The title page I wanted to be simple, consisting of only one large title, one large and one small photo and a written brief outline of what the essay is about. This was inspired by my reference material.
- As I mentioned in my second essay development post, each paragraph of my essay covers a reliant but different area of the subject matter, that's why I felt it would be beneficial to place a sub-heading in the same style as the main title when a new topic is brought up, so people looking for a specific criteria can easily locate it.
- I wanted everything to be condensed equally, with as little negative space as possible, as I feel that this would accompany the bold, condensed typeface used for the titles perfectly. This is also the reason why I selected to have text alignment set to 'justify'.
- I ensured never to stretch text across all three columns, as it is unpleasant for the viewer to read as the eyes have to be lead all the way across the page.

I feel that all these qualities were maintained which I am very happy about, however after looking over the piece, I have noticed some issues:
- The font size I started off was perhaps too large, which caused me to have to make a lot of pages as the were required in order to contain all the text. The reason as to why I didn't go back and alter the size of the text later, was because it was already aligned well with supporting imagery, therefore resizing would mean having to re-evaluate the composition which I worked hard to perfect. I wanted the text to stay at a consistent size throughout (with the exception of titles and quotes).
- Though at first being hesitant to include anything other than a white background, I now feel as though I should have added some visual addition to the background, even if it's faint. This would give the article more of a personality and identity aside from its font and format.
- I found there to be too many instances where words are hyphenated as they're cut off and followed in the following line. This irritates me when reading, but unfortunately I did not discover how to prevent this process.

Regardless of these issues, the design of the article presents the essay clearly and effectively, whilst adding more to it for the form of visuals, which is exactly what I set out to do. For a first time beginner on InDesign I am very happy with the progress I have made, and due to how easily I found composing each page later in the process, I'll definitely take these teachings further and become more competent at InDesign, in order to ensure I prevent the issues that I had with this article next time I use InDesign for a similar purpose.