Project 5: Digital Magazine Spread
In this project, we’re working with grids to create digital magazine spreads around an article. I have previously worked with Grids before in websites to create unity across multiple pages, but I’ve never used them in the context of a magazine. I think the main difference is that magazines are very image heavy, and rely on them for a lot of the aesthetic appeal. Therefore, in this project I want to focus on finding good photos for the prompt and using them effectively.
Exercise 1: Grids
The first pair is a a 3 column grid, with some rows used variable for headers and images. For example, we can see that the row for the image is used in the second page for the title. On the second page of the second spread, the 3-column grid is broken by the references at the end of the chapter.
This pair has the same large margins and column grids, but the first spread has 3 columns per page while the second one has 2 per page.
Brainstorming and Gathering Photos (04/21)
I’ve chosen Treehouses for this project, and I think I’m going to try and use a lot of natural greens and browns for the article. Many of the treehouses are very beautiful, so it would be good to use them as full-page spreads.
Rough Layout for Spreads (4/26)
For the three spreads, I knew that I had some really nice photos of the treehouses, so I wanted to include some larger photos to showcase some of the locations. Because of this, some of my designs have multiple pages that would use full pages as a photo with some text, while the others are more packed with text and content. The first one uses more rows while the third one uses mostly columns.
I also had a separate idea of using the country silhouettes as clipping masks for photos, as a way to showcase both the treehouse and the country (since it is a travel magazine). I would probably use a modular grid for this, but would have to experiment to make sure the treehouses look good in the silhouettes.
First Drafts (04/28)
From the drafts, I played with the middle idea, but found that many of my photos don’t fit well into the country silhouettes. Therefore, I decided to try for a more minimal traditional magazine.
I ran into similar problems with the third layout, since long and skinny images often didn’t do justice to the treehouses. Therefore, I decided to use the first layout which is more basic, but would make use of the images better.
I tried to use a few large images to make the best use of the landscapes and pretty images that I found of the treehouses.
Second Draft (05/03)
From the first draft, I made some changes to the layout and lowered the font sizes. I decided that I want the full page spread to be on opposite pages instead of both on the first page. I also chose to go with the full page spreads instead of bordering it with white for the text.
Third Draft (05/05)
From my last draft, I worked on reformatting some of the text-heavy pages to create a better balance on the page. I did this by altering the way the titles are formatted, as well as alternating shape and text positions. I also added image captions in a small font.
Conclusion
I’m really happy with the way my magazine turned out. When I started designing, I had a lot of trouble with the layout because it felt very basic and uninspired. However, it really started coming together when I put in the pictures, especially because the beautiful full page spreads were really eye-catching. I think I’ve learned about using grids in a magazine setting more, and it’s really different from the way websites are thought of. Since for websites, you only see one page at a time, you’re trying to create a sense of consistency and uniformity throughout the website, but the pages aren’t actually interacting with each other.
In contrast, in magazine spreads, you have to look at one page on it’s own, as a spread, and as a whole magazine, and the layout of the grid on any one page affects the way the rest looks. This balance was really hard to achieve with a lot of large images, but I think the final draft has achieved a sense of balance.
