Before starting this editorial design project, I completed two Adobe Illustrator exercises that focused on making shapes and illustrations. In these two exercises, I practiced the pathfinder tool and pen tool.
After becoming more accustomed to Adobe Illustrator functions and tools, I moved on to sourcing elements and feature content that I would be referencing and utilizing for this project.
My feature content circulates mainly on Hyein Seo, a recently uprising Korean fashion designer. I decided to reference an article from THE FACE, https://theface.com/style/hyein-seos-strong-girls-fashion-seoul-vfiles-rihanna, that focuses on Hyein Seo’s journey as a designer, and her artistic message and purpose.
My sourced elements consists of typography, color palette, graphic elements, and reference photos (moodboard). I decided to make three iterations of differing directions I could take my overall editorial design. Although these iterations have differing main themes, they still hold overlapping similarities, such as color palette and reference photos.
This design circulates mainly on using multiple texts/textstyles and images to make designs, rather than using icons or pen tool objects.
I wanted to utilize neutral cool tones to keep the design consistent with Hyein Seo’s clothing designs, and have the blue be the pop of color that sets specific pieces apart for hierarchy and for keeping the differing pages cohesive.
This design consists of utilizing blank negative space (specifically between text) and creating an abstract pattern with text. I would focus more on making this design as intentionally simple as possible, so that it correlates and does not take away from the fashion design photos.
I also wanted to utilize adobe photoshop to make an ink bleed effect at the end (and maybe add a filter overlay over it) to add more texture and depth to the simple design.
I also wanted to use the saturated blue (subject to change to another highly saturated color) to add pops of color to tie in the design at the end.
This design consists mainly of graphics that will be handdrawn by myself and will have a very sketchbook-y, organic feel to it. As the drawings will add noise to the design, I wanted to keep the color palette and typefaces used simple and limited. This will ensure that my design will still be easy to follow, aesthetic, and will not have competing design elements.
After discussing with peers, I finalized my design system. I decided to combine the first iteration and third iteration from above: keeping elements like the first iteration’s color palette and the third iteration’s hand drawn text/ graphics.
Below is my final design system.
Peers raised concern for my typefaces chosen, so I decided to design my vision to help them visualize and give better critique. I also explained that I chose to have a very simple subhead and body text so that it will not distract from the graphic content used, and also mirror the color palette. To add more personality and ‘fun’ to the ‘boring’ texts, I will implement extended spacing/kerning in random areas.
In order to capture the overall style and tone of her clothing, I combined pieces from Hyein Seo’s brand in a single file. This served a similar purpose to the mood board; I was able to gain inspiration for my color palette and general ‘vibes’ for my typeface and design (graphic) elements.
After compiling all of my design ideas, I moved on to designing the layout of the spread.
I first practiced how to apply and visualize grids with the exercise shown below.
After completing this exercise, I sketched out three varying iterations of my layout sketch.
The first iteration (first row) focused on using varying scales and typefaces to create a design. The blue blobs indicate cutout photos of a model wearing Hyein’s designs. I also implemented varying types of design on the typeface for the enlarged quote (different typefaces + colors + strokes with no fill).
The second iteration (second row) focused more on hand drawn designs (font + abstract shapes). The hand drawn font will wrap around ‘HYEIN SEO’ on the title page, adding dimension and a novel, original design element. To tie in the hand drawn aesthetic to the double-page spreads, I wanted to add abstract figures around the enlarged quote.
The third iteration (third row) focused on utilizing white space more whimsically. To have the text have more of a personality, I plan to add random spacing in between words (both vertically and horizontally).
I wanted my instagram ad sketches to focus on the varying typeface design and the models wearing Hyein Seo’s clothes. I did not want to compromise the simple design so I decided to also keep lots of breathing space as well.
This is my first draft of the design layout. This rudimentary design focused less on utilizing the grid, but making a general layout of what I had originally envisioned that would allow me to see roughly how the final product would be like. I decided to take out the blue from the color palette, as I wanted to use more pictures of the models and give more emphasis to the differing typefaces that were used as more of a design element. I also decided to play with scale with the photos to add more dimension and flow to the design.
This design has all of the photo elements (cutouts of all the models + a blown up picture that covers the whole page) and text (title and copy) put in. I feel as though I captured the simple and neutral “vibe” that I was going for with the abstract white breathing space made from the cutout figures and the varying typefaces with varying spacing and kerning.
The instagram ad consists of multiple cutouts of the models wearing Hyein Seo’s design in differing scales. I feel as though the design choices of having the figures be cut off from the page with the varying typeface ties the instagram page with the editorial layout design.
Upon receiving critique from my peers in class, I decided to make multiple changes from the previous draft. The most notable changes are utilizing the grid more and adding a beige background. Implementing the grid format more helped clean up the design; the figures being differing scales seemed more put together and framed. Adding a beige background helped make the design’s pages more cohesive and also made the figures stand out less. Most importantly, the beige background helped the text jump out from the page and be a stronger design element on pages 4 and 5.
This is my final design, which I believe achieved the simple essence with the slight irregular kerning on the differing typefaces, neutral color choices, and cutout figures. There were not too many large changes from the last design except for the complete change in pages 6 and 7. The full-page picture idea made the design too photo-visual focused and made the informative copy seem much less significant. Having a photo collage allowed me to have more room to. balance out the design with more copy text. I also wanted to mirror the design choice on pages 4 and 5 of layering the typefaces on top of each other by layering the cutout figures on to one another, which also functioned as a way of making my design more cohesive. I also added a scaled down cutout on pages 4 and 5 to make the pages slightly less text heavy, while also allowing the eye to flow from the right page to the left more easily.
Overall, this entire process of starting a design from scratch to making a full editorial magazine spread design with an accompanying instagram logo helped me gain so much knowledge on designing on Adobe InDesign, applying critiques, balancing out the design in terms of color palette, and application of differing textfaces and photo scales.