Going into this project, I had three main goals that I wanted to reach. My first goal was to create effective layouts that had a good balance within their designs. I wanted to focus on this because I have not had to make a magazine like this before, so I wanted to use this as an opportunity to get more experience and grow in this area. My second goal was to work on speaking with type in this project, since I haven’t had a lot of opportunity to play with type and use it to express ideas in past projects. Finally, as I worked on the project, I put more of my focus on creating a cohesive design for my magazine. I realized that I was struggling with this as I continued to work on the project, so I created this goal for myself so I would focus on it more.
The first design choices I made involved the cover. Going into the magazine I knew that I wanted to focus on the “Five best albums” and the “Going Underground” stories; however, these two story topics don’t really have much in common so I spent a lot of time thinking about what cover image to use. I chose cover-17 because I thought it evoked the feelings of a punk rock musician, due to the way the man was dressed and posed. The image also was set in the Tube so I thought this cover image did a good job of combining the two articles I used. Once I chose my image I made a cutout of the hand to interact with the magazine title to create more visual interest in the image and pulled colors from the image to color the title as well.
My second design choices I made involved the typography I used for the ASF article. I spent some time messing with the typography of the ASF. I thought it would be cool to have the headline be in a square box to look like an album cover, but it was hard to get it to look right since I was using a three column layout on this page. Then I tried taking the typographic elements of the text on each album cover to make the headline. I decided that this was too busy and it took away from the images of album covers themselves, which was the focal point of the story. Instead, I decided to use the same font on the cover for all of my article headlines, to create a cohesiveness between each story. I then used this font to create large numbers next to the albums and made each number a color that came from the album to create visual interest and draw the reader’s eyes.
For “Going Underground”, I spent a lot of time deciding what images I should use for the story. Since the article was about Henry Beck and his map, as well as how Henry Beck is relatively unknown as a designer, I decided I wanted the opening image to be of Beck with “the diagram” to highlight his important role in the design of the Tube map. For the headline type, I decided to line up the word “underground” with the line of the map on the wall, and I made each letter of the word a different color from the different lines on the Tube to add a little color to the image and create an eyecatching headline. I then used the maps of the Tube within the article, placing them at the points of the story where they were specifically mentioned. I figured as a reader, I would finish reading about the map and then want to see it, especially since I am not from London. I also chose to use “Tube Gear” as my side bar, since it correlated with the content of the article better than the side bar about the posters..
When it comes to my creative process, I noticed that I have an easier time coming up with designs for individual articles or singular parts of a magazine, but I have a harder time making a cohesive design across the articles. I think this is because I usually use the articles and the images within them as inspiration for the design, colors, elements, etc. that I use. This meant that as I was working on this project a lot of the elements and colors varied from article to article, so I felt like I had a hard time creating something that felt cohesive across the whole project. As part of this I realized that a lot of the cohesiveness within the magazine comes from typographic consistency across the articles, so I am going to keep this in mind for future projects. I also had a hard time with getting my images sized correctly, especially when I was trying to adjust the resolution. I had to go back and fix some of the images multiple times because they didn’t look right or were too blurry, so this is something I want to continue to work on in the future. Finally, I also learned that when it comes to my design style, I tend to like simpler typographic choices when it comes to fonts. I liked using one font for all of the headlines within the magazine because it felt cleaner and more cohesive and I enjoyed using color, size, and the layout of the text to make each headline unique, despite using the same type.
For this magazine project, my goal was to create a clean and visually unified design that felt like a real publication. I wanted to highlight the artistic energy of London while maintaining clear readability across all six pages. I chose the Giacometti theme for the main article because I felt that his artistic style matched well with the architectural depth of my selected cover image. For the ASF page, I used a clean grid layout to showcase the five best album covers of all time, keeping typography minimal to let the visuals speak for themselves.One of the main challenges I faced was making the cover text readable on a busy photo background. I initially tried both white and black text, but neither stood out well enough against the brick wall. I considered using a semi-transparent black box behind the text, but in the end, I decided to go with a bold blue font color, which created a strong contrast while still matching the overall tone of the image. I think this solution balanced visibility and aesthetics in a cleaner way.
My goals for this presentation was to explore with design techniques based on the theme of the story. On my opening spread, I researched how to use the type on a path tool to create a visually stimulating piece that worked with the main image. It was really tricky to figure out, which caused the edges to not be perfect following the semicircle pattern of the tunnel. I felt accomplished since I was able to successfully use the tool in multiple parts of that spread. On my second spread, I wanted the three different train maps to feel like a train map in the process of reading. I created a path and focused on making sure it followed a reasonable path for the readers eyes to follow around the text. I feel like it works well, but the size of the left red line may end up being a bit distracting while reading.
I successfully stuck followed the three face maximum and connected my ASF to my main story with the Chalkduster font. I was especially careful on following my grid in the second spread. I tried to have each element line up perfectly to their grid lines, which made me specifically proud of the top left sign where the underground text perfectly covers the grid. I used the eyedropper tool on my cover and in my spreads to create unity, which I think helps keep a consistent and attractive theme. The grey background for the sidebar is the same color as the railroad in the opening spread image. Considering the story is focused on the development of the tube map, I thought the reader would be most interested in the evolution of the map. I wanted to design a an interesting way to see that evolution and I think it turned out to be very visually interesting.
Click image for full design!
I learned that it was incredibly helpful to plan ahead. There were a couple ideas I had for the opening spread and cover that would not have ended up successful in practice (at least in the way I tackled it on paper) and I am glad I caught that before I spent the time trying out the design. There were a couple ideas I had to bail on after giving them a crack, but it could’ve been much more. I also learned how to research my own techniques to incorporate into the design. The curved text on my opening spread could’ve been better. The time spent to get it where it ended was more than I expected, and I had to accept that it was not going to be perfect. So I think next time I should experiment with a concept a bit more before committing to it. I also noticed my text is a bit tight and uneven in places, and it may even cause my ASF to appear a bit bland. I like the idea I had, but maybe spending more time tweaking text and adding color to largely white pages could be more appealing.
My main goal that I had going into this project was to make something that I think looks good and is successful in sharing the stories/information and more importantly I wanted to enjoy the process of making it. I had a lot of fun working on this project. There were definitely parts of it that frustrated me. I have also learned that I am fairly indecisive because I went through about 6 different layout ideas for the main story and had to sleep on a lot of different ideas for how I wanted to approach the ASF. I think that I did a good job of meeting both of my goals for this project. Creating and trying out the different layout ideas that I had was a lot of fun and I think by allowing myself to try (and fail) so many times helped make a good final product.
The first thing that I did was pick out the fonts that I would use for the cover and rest of the magazine. I looked on Pinterest at other magazines and their font and layout choices to inform my decisions and figure out what works and what doesn’t. After I made the cover I used that to guide the typography throughout the rest of the magazine. When it came to adding color I decided to take colors from the main images I use. I did this because I think it helps in incorporating the images and the text together to create a harmonious look between the text and images.
My creative process consisted a lot of making a design and then putting down my laptop/pencil and thinking about it after thinking it through. I would come back and make changes or try another idea that I may have come up with. Something that was something that took a bit to get used to was the centerfold. I’ve done a lot of yearbook design so being able to have elements so close to the centerfold was very new to me and a mental barrier that took me a while to overcome. At first I struggled to calibrate to the scaling of things on the page I would make something, but then upon looking back it would be too big or small on the page. I think in the future I want to try and incorporate more white space and different ways of placing images into the design.
This post will explain my main goals, key design decisions, and an analysis of my creative process.
First, I wanted to create a magazine for young designers–a light, alternative, and nuanced set of stories that balanced history with design news and skill advancement/acquisition. Hence, I designed a cover with teasers that: offered a historical perspective of the London Tube map, the best design schools in the United Kingdom, and a review of color theory. This publication was, of course, for young people in the United Kingdom, but I did not want it to feel like a tabloid, which was quite difficult to avoid. The colors, typography, and photos all reflected a slightly “grungy” but still lively aesthetic that prioritized deep thought and critical thinking while holding Millennials’ and Generation Z’s attention. Simply put, this magazine was inspired by the news outlets and magazines that I use daily, but it also had to heavily incorporate and welcome (art) history and artists of all kinds, which are not the topics of most of my favorite sources. My favorite online magazines and news sources are: The New York Times, Forbes, Sentient Media, We Animals, The Guardian, National Geographic, and the BBC Science Focus Magazine; after reviewing their style choices, favorite fonts, and notable teasers, I adjusted my own cover to make it look more professional and show continuity and stylistic flow. I also looked online, specifically using image searches for classic publications like TIME, Vogue, and National Geographic for inspiration as well, both for my spreads and the cover. Thus, while I wanted to establish my own visual identity, I also used outside sources to help create a professional magazine, rather than something like a tabloid or otherwise weak presentation. I do believe that I achieved my goal to create a serious, yet aesthetically pleasing magazine, while focusing on history, design, and the youth.
Furthermore, I spent most of my time adjusting my typography, images, and colors. The most difficult part of this project was pairing images and colors, as well as establishing an identity with my fonts. Beginning with typography, I chose to use Broadway, Georgia Pro, and Avenir Next as my three font families, but I used P22 Underground for my headline. I chose Broadway after much contemplation. While Broadway was initially created in 1927 as an Art Deco typeface and usually reminds us of the 20s and 30s, to me, it invoked a feeling of older art forms–dance, music, and drama–that were “wild” for their time. It is a font family of history and innovation of art forms, which deeply resonated with the purposes of my own publication. In addition, I chose to use Georgia Pro, as I read that The New York Times used to use Times New Roman but switched to Georgia; I love The New York Times, and because Adobe InDesign comes with 20 stylistic variations of Georgia Pro, I decided to use Georgia Pro, as it looks a lot like Georgia and has a wide range of styles. Georgia Pro acted as my main Serif font, and I used it in my body text, deck, and author’s name, as well as in my teasers. I chose Avenir Next, as our professor used Avenir in one of our assignments, and I wanted to try it too! However, I only had access to font families such as Avenir Next and Avenir New World. I wanted a Sans Serif for my captions; I also used the Sans Serif in my sidebar and my ASF page, as well as on my cover. I needed a font family that was suitable for my captions but was readable (for the slightly longer paragraphs, like the short paragraph in my sidebar). Next, I used P22 Underground. This font has a story. P22 Underground was created by Paul Hunt in 1997 for the P22 Type Foundry and is an adapted and publicly available version of Johnson, designed by Edward Johnson in 1916 for the Underground Group. Thus, this font was used by the London Underground! I initially used a font family called Omnium, as it was rounded and reminded me of the long tube lights illuminating the insides of buses and along railway passages. However, once I found the font used by the London Underground, I knew that I had to use an adaptation of this font for my opening spread. Moving forward, I must describe my image choices. I chose the image of the London Eye for my cover, because I thought that I could use the “sandwich” effect with it, just as the class did with the Lil Bub cover. I also loved the colors in this cover, and I loved that the colors (blue and orange) were compliments on the color wheel. However, I experienced difficulties with the colors, as CMYK and RGB versions of the photo looked completely different. These issues will be addressed in the next section, but shortly put, my color scheme changed to include yellow-orange and blue-violet. Virtually every photo had to have at least one of these colors, once I made this choice. The image you see in my thumbnail has yellow-orange in it (I used the Eyedropper tool to pull this color from my cover); the text box is a tinted version of one of the two blue-violet colors that I pulled from my cover image (using the Color Theme Tool). Notably, I also used the Golden Ratio and had to crop my image to show the tracks running toward my body text! Thus, my photo took approximately 62% of the space, and it was cropped accordingly, while still abiding by the Rule of Thirds! I continued this pattern and applied the Golden Ratio to the Sidebar on the left side of my second spread and to the main image on the right side of my second spread. The main image (a train) also contained yellow-orange, and I had to swap out the image three times before finding the best one! Images of the maps and of Harry Beck were added to provide historical elements, as I wanted to add visual references within the story, though these elements did not abide by my color scheme (they were thus used as smaller images and did not have as much attention drawn to them). With respect to the sidebar (I chose Poster Parade), I used a tinted version of the one of my color swatches from my cover. I chose to use six images in my sidebar and displayed them chronologically. I did not use all eight posters in the sidebar, as I ran out of room, but I did choose to remove the two posters whose publication/creation dates were duplicates. The posters used also tended to have a blue-violet, blue, orange, or yellow-orange element in them. Lastly, my ASF page was designed to reflect an informative but playful aesthetic. The images were all given strokes from the cover’s color swatch (or using the Eyedropper tool), but I tinted the colors to turn them into pastels and add to the playful effect (I also rounded the edges of each box around the image and around the ASF itself to add to this effect). Thus, this process was long, but the complementary color scheme, three font family rule, and rule of thirds, were carried throughout the magazine, adding continuity of style and consistency of effect. As most of my issues revolved around color, this topic is addressed in the next section.
In this last text block, I will review my mistakes and issues. I had many. First, I struggled with color. The image that I chose for my cover looked very different in Photoshop, and when I added it in InDesign, it changed from an orange and blue color scheme to an orange-yellow and blue-violet scheme. I knew that I had to use the CMYK color model for print projects, but I wanted to preserve the blue and orange complementary color scheme seen in the RBG version of the image. My original plan involved crafting the cover in a separate file and importing the cover as a PNG. Then, I would import the cover without impacting the spreads, and ASF, which would both use CMYK color settings. The final version would use the RBG model for the cover (as a PNG) but still technically be using CMYK colors everywhere else, abiding by the printing rules. However, after doing more research as to how the CMYK and RBG models work, I realized that CMYK model is better for print projects and is a subtractive model, while RBG model uses additive light and needs a screen. Because I wanted to maintain consistency, I used the Transparency Blend Space to change the settings back–from RGB to CMYK. Because of this change, I spent Saturday altering my entire color scheme, swapping images out, and redesigning my headline for my opening spread. The issue came when I went back to Photoshop to create my thumbnail. The file using the CMYK model was dull and unimpressive as a thumbnail, so I used RBG color model settings, just as our video tutorial suggested. However, my project thumbnail looks different from the InDesign file and PDF. Because of this inconsistency, in the poster project, I plan to either use the RBG model (as we used this model when making thumbnails) or only use colors that are “CMYK-safe” (and are less affected by conversions between models). For the former option, I have read that the file should be saved as a transparent PNG for printing, as the printer uses RIP for CMYK color conversion. For the latter option, it seems that some colors are better preserved during conversion than others, as the available colors are more limited in CMYK than RGB color models. I have learned much. Because I am new to this type of project, I assumed that my only option was to use CMYK color settings to maintain consistency, but I now see that I just need to do a little bit more research, as the answer to my problems are not black and white, and I can alter my settings to fit my needs. I have a better plan to illustrate my poster now! Lastly, I learned so much from this project. I learned how tedious this process is. I learned that I must create a contingency plan. I learned that I must take the process in stride; as soon as Week Two began, I started working on the first project instead of waiting. Yet, I had not acquired a full skill set to tackle the project, so I had to redo a lot of my work later on, resulting in over 30 hours of work being needed. As I saw issues with typography, looked at other magazine spreads and covers, perused past students’ work, and designed my magazine’s first six pages, I found out that I needed to work more slowly. I had to work and revise, instead of race forward. I also learned that I needed to accept that a first draft might not be good enough. I became so attached to my work that I was hesitant to change the color scheme from orange and blue to yellow-orange and blue-violet and to move from the Omnium to P22 Underground font family. I was afraid to alter my work. In the next project, I intend to embrace the struggle, work fewer hours, and make rough drafts. I will embrace the tedious process of sketching and resketching, and I will look to work slowly, as the tutorials are given, instead of working too far ahead, before I am ready. I am so excited for the next project, as I become a better artist and designer!
