Rendering Type Exercise

As a type exercise we had to space out the letters of our name and date of birth by measuring out the letters widths and marking out where each letter would go on the page in the centre before tracing the letters and rendering them with a black fine liner.

I think it went really well apart from the 'Rob' which is a lot thicker and out of shape to the font it was traced from.

InDesign Tutorial: Double Page Spread Type Functions

For this exercise we learnt how to arrange, space and transform text and images in a magazine/newspaper format. The heading is on two separate lines and sized to fill the space. The gap in between these lines (leading) has been decreased. The subtitle has been aligned in the centre and is in italics. The first letter of the text has the drop cap function and the text is in columns. The images have been put into circular frames and the text is arranged around the image. 

Headline Recreation Activity

For this activity we were given 8 headlines and had to identify or recreate the fonts used and the positioning of letters.

Recreate an existing double page spread

Original:

We chose these pages to recreate so we had to measure and note down the font size, typeface used, leading, image sizes, margins and gaps between images and columns of text in order to recreate the pages...

Measurements:

Our Version:

Here is our version of the magazine cover with the accurate measurements and font details.

Haiku Poems Activity

The Task:

 A haiku is an unrhymed verse form of Japanese origin having three lines containing usually five, seven and five syllables respectively.
For this exercise all the work must be produced using InDesign in a document measuring 21cm by 21cm.

1) Emphasising one word using the italic type function.

I chose to emphasise the word 'jumps' because it is one of the most energetic words in the poem and would give the poem some emotion as the person reads the poem. Splash could have also done this.

2) Balance the positive & negative spaces among & between letterforms, words, lines & the edges of the page.

I chose to make the words silence again much smaller because I felt it showed the message of the poem as the previous lines have more drama and the last line goes back to being silent again. The first line could have been small as well but I think it works ok like this.

3) Visually express or reinforce the verbal message of the poem by varying your letter arrangements, size, style, weight or colour

I made the tracking between the letters of 'old' wider as it relates to the opinion that old things and people are slower. The word 'jumps' is again in italics but I have also arranged it to appear to be jumping over the word splash. The word 'splash' spans across the whole space in a very large font to create some drama to reflect the emotion of the word. 'silence again' is also in a smaller font for this version.

4) Experiment with any style, size, positioning, typefaces or colour options

I duplicated the word frog many times to arrange it into the shape of a frog and placed the other words to build up the scene of a frog jumping into the pond. I think it looks quite messy and the fonts don't really blend well together but I do like my idea.

Magazine Cover Research

Here are some of my favourite magazine covers I have found along with some annotations on what I like, dislike and could take some inspiration from...

Mood Board of Magazine Cover Inspiration

Mast Head Inspiration

Here are a few magazine mastheads that I really like the style of and would like to take some inspiration from.

Genre of Magazine Moodboard

This is a mood board of the type of imagery and themes I want for my magazine. I want it to be focused on high fashion that is quite bizarre and artsy compared with regular clothing. It will allow me to be creative in the way it is arranged on the page and I am really interested in the look of this sort of clothing and style of design.

Genre Specific Magazine Covers & Mastheads

Good Magazines (in my opinion):

Bad Magazines (in my opinion):

Typography Inspiration Moodboard

This mood board shows the styles of typography I would like to experiment with in my magazine. I would like to use quite homemade style fonts with a lot of personality that can act as a focal point.

Design Style Inspiration Moodboard

I would like my magazine to use a lot of mixed medias and bright colours to build up quite an energetic look. I want the design style to be as artsy and bizarre as the clothes I would like my high fashion magazine to have.

Choosing the name for my magazine:

Masthead Development (by hand)

I sketched out as many ways to write my magazine title 'Seize' as possible to see what styles could work as my masthead. (the ones with the red stars are my favourites)

Here are some developed versions of my mastheads before I take them onto the computer.

Masthead Development (on screen)

Here is my experimentation with typefaces on screen for my masthead...

Further Development...

To make the fonts I liked my own I developed them by editing certain parts to fit with what I want for my masthead.

 After experimenting with the masthead on the left I decided that it wouldn't work as my masthead because it looks unfinished and messy so I won't be taking it any further with my development.
The masthead on the right is something I really like as it has a lot of detailed and artistic elements that would work well for my artistic fashions magazine. I experimented with the stroke but I think it works best in its basic form as I would like to add my own fill to the text any way.

I really like this basic sans-serif font as it allows me to customise it according to the content of the issue. For example my issue will be about coloured fur so I have made the exclamation point look like fur, which acts as the 'i' in SEIZE) I think this masthead would give me a good basic type to apply my design to.

This is a more traditional approach to a masthead because of its serif and grid like form - I think the thick strokes allow it to give a big impact against a busy cover. I would like to apply my own fill to masthead so that it becomes more unique and my own.

Masthead Inspiration

V magazine changes the design of their masthead with every issue to reflect its content. This is something I would really like to try for my masthead - whether that will be just the '!' or the whole word I don't know yet so I will do some experimentation.

Testing Mastheads

I tested out my mastheads against different types of images to truly see which could or couldn't work in the real situation.

Serif Masthead

This type works really well to use the space and stand out on top of or behind the image. The problem with having the type behind the cover model is that the '!" is hidden which is the most important part of the masthead because it is the area of the magazine identity I want to be most dominant. The plain colour allows it to be bold and legible but lets the image be eye catching which is most important after the magazine name is famous.

 Next I customised the type by colour and with a pattern to try what a more artistic approach could achieve as a masthead. I really like these results as they add a lot of energy and difference to the magazine.

 Sans Serif Masthead

The problem with this masthead is that it is so long and so to span across the width of the cover  it takes up almost a third of the cover which can be problematic when choosing my cover image. However, It was a really good piece of type to customise with some paint brush effects and filling the text with a texture.

To experiment further I tested different brush effects over the type, placement and finally a fur effect over the entire masthead. I really like this masthead as the basic type means that I can add detail without making the masthead to overwhelming and busy.

 Decorative Masthead

This masthead is very different to the other mastheads but I really like it as it clearly shows to the readers that it is a different magazine to most fashion magazines and that it is more creative and obscure. I think it could work really well as my masthead but maybe with a bit more customisation to make it my own.

To customise this masthead I used a fur brush to apply an effect to the type which I really like as it looks artsy and obscure which is the theme of my magazine.

Chosen Headline:

I have chosen the sans serif typeface as it is strong, simple and allows the customisation to be the detail of the masthead. I think it is dramatic and tall which I think fits with both the meaning of the word and the tone/theme of my obscure, artsy fashions.

Here is my chosen masthead customised to appear furry (as my main article will be based around the trend of brightly coloured fur coats)

Sourcing articles of text for my magazine

For the article in my magazine I went in search of an piece of text (around 600 words) loosely based on the subject of my double page spread

(coloured fur) so here are three different articles I can choose from

Choosing a body text Typeface

I experimented with various classic and alternative typefaces to see which one I would like to use for my body text...

Magazine Double Page Spreads Research

(part of my Summer Research)

Here are some of my favourite magazine double page spreads I have found along with some annotations on what I like, dislike, could take some inspiration from and various analysis on:

typography, colour, images, layout, column/grid format, suitability for target reader...etc.

Double Page Spread Mood board:

This mood board contains some images of double paged spreads that I really like the look of for my magazine as they have a lot of impact, colour, mixed media and a clear focal point.