Grids, Columns, Details

We had a really interesting class today analyzing how people designed spreads. Some people had less on the page. I had chunks of text and lots of area for images, filling up most of the pages to the margin.

I’m wondering if I have the habit of cramming things onto the page because I’ve had more exposure to photography in comparison to book or magazine layout? With photography, I’ve trained my eye to find a composition through a viewfinder. There’s no margins or grids — clearly there are things that crossover like the Rule of Thirds, etc. But when I’m composing an image at least, I’m not thinking about the edges, just about the content.

Anyways, talking through how other people did their spreads really helped. We focused on a list of things to consider moving forward:

• Font faces — Are you going to keep it consistent and use one? Will you use two fonts, one sans-serif and one serif font?
• Quotes — How do you make the quote stand out given what we know about hierarchy? Pay attention to hanging quotes. Andrew taught us how to manipulate that in InDesign by going to Type and then Story and checking off a feature. We also have to make sure we’re using the right kind of quotes as in curled quotes, not the kind that’s used for measurements.
• Sources — Adding superscripts to the images and quotes we’re using from our references.

• Column Structure — Really reconsider how and why you’re using the column structure you choose whether it’s 3, 4 or more.
• Line Length — I hadn’t thought about this one really before talking about it in class so this was helpful to hear. We should make sure that the line lengths are comfortable. I had them dragged out to the edge of the page which is bad. It’s tiring to read all across the page.

I think I’ll have less room for all of these larger images once I shorten the line lengths. There won’t be as much room for images to stretch completely across the page.

I’m excited to also play around with color! I’m planning on having black spreads and white text playing off of Rodchenko’s piece “Black on Black”, which he made in response to Malevich’s “White on White”.

Thinking about different fonts that make sense. I’m definitely feeling Alfa Slab One!

I’m looking forward to picking a typeface. I’m thinking that slab serifs could be the way to go. But the issue is that Alfa Slab One doesn’t have many weights to it. So that won’t be good for hierarchy.