Project 3

Week 3- Week 8

Jessica Ngu Wei King (0323639) BGCD

Publishing I: Print Media

Project 3: Magazine Design and Layout

Instructions/ Project Brief

*to be updated*

Design Process

I decided to choose the topic 'nature photography'. My idea was to create a nature photography that only talks about photographing in winter (since its December now). I want to maintain the airy space and the 'cold' feeling for my magazine layout. So I started off with some sketches (Fig. 1-4). 

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I thought of different mastheads for my magazine (lenses, naturalism, adventures, escape). At last, I decided to name it capture, as it is simple, yet strong and more appropriate for a photography magazine. I came out with different designs for my cover to set up the feeling for the rest of the pages. 

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Since I've set my magazine cover page to more of a modern feel, I felt like angles, square, lines and shapes are more suitable for my contents pages. It also needs some movement in my layout in order to lead people to continuing reading it. 

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1. Feature Article 1

My first feature article is talking about how to capture perfect photo during winter, and also the tips to take photographs in winter. I planned to used a lot of large images in my spreads. 

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2. Cover Story 

Cover story is about shooting winter scene in black and white. 

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Project 3 Final Outcome

Reflections

1. What was your main DESIGN DIRECTION?

My main design concept was to create a photography magazine for winter edition. I wish to create an airy and cold feeling to my readers. 

  

2. What was your main AIM in resolving this project?
Same as the previous project, I was aiming to achieve the same feeling for every spreads so that the whole booklet look same overall. I was also aiming to let people feel comfortable and a lot of spaces to 'breathe' while reading at it. 

3. What were the tangible, measurable OUTCOMES that you achieved?
I believe that I have achieved what I've wanted to show others through the comments and feedbacks from my lecturer and classmates. I think my final outcome turned out quite well and successfully on the pdf and flip book versions, but I am not sure about the physical book as there is some problem with my binding, which would affects the reading. Other than that, I think I have achieved that airy and cold feeling in my layout. 

4. What were your OBSERVATIONS?
I observed that I must set my cover page first in order to continue the rest. Also, without the contents and idea of topic I wanted to include, I can't continue doing my layout. I think the hardest part on this project is to make use of the spaces. It may sound easy, but it's not. If the spaces are not being used properly it may create a lot of weird white space. However, I do enjoy exploring this kind of swiss magazine layout as I've never tried it before.

5. Carry out some REFLECTIONS.
I've spend a lot of effort in this project and I'm happy with my outcome. I was able to come out with what I wanted to achieve in this project and I'm really satisfied with it. I would like to explore some complicated layout with a lot of movements and adventures in the future assignments. 

Project 2

Week 3- Week 8

Jessica Ngu Wei King (0323639) BGCD

Publishing I: Print Media

Project 2: Information Booklet- The Age Of Vikings by James Hodgson

Instructions/ Project Brief

Design Process

I began by thinking what kind of 'feeling' I want my booklet to be. I hope my booklet gives people a clean but informative kind of feeling. So, I started to choose the typeface I wanted for my headline for front cover. I chose Garamond and Baskerville as the typefaces would give an elegant feeling. I then began to start experimenting my cover page. Fig.1 shows my very first draft for my book cover. Of course, I'm very unsatisfied with it because it doesn't give the feeling I want to show. The dull color background doesn't attract people as well. However, the typefaces works well at the front cover. 

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Then, I tried to make it more interesting by using the vikings symbols to make some texture (Fig.2). But it didn't turn out well. I tried out the design for Fig.3, I felt that the black space on the right has created very funny space, so i centralized the background and move everything to the middle. Mr. Ken also suggested that I change the 'Armstrong knowledge series' to a brighter color so make it stand out. At last, I decided on using Fig.5 as my book cover. After setting the tone of the book cover, I started exploring the content of the booklet. 

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Here are few pages of my first attempt for the content parts. In order to  have the same feeling throughout the whole booklet, I created a brown box for the headline and also the page numbering for every pages. I also used the norse typeface as the whole booklet is about the vikings. I felt that the box on the left is quite disturbing, make it look heavy overall. And It is also not balance when look at the whole spread as well. 

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After consulting Mr.Ken a few times, I've made some changes. I've also changed the boxes at the side to smaller one to make it simple and clean. 

Fig.9 My initial design was just the copyright on the left and a normal timeline on the right page. I thought that it could be more interesting and more movement, so I recreated the timeline represents the movement of the vikings as shown in the figure above.  

Fig.10 Mr. Ken also suggested that I could change the color to a stronger dark color.

Fig.11 The 'did you know' section has changed to white color so that it doesn't look so heavy .

Fig.12. Mr. Ken also suggested me to create a boat and some footprints to show the movement of the vikings. I've also added headline and textured background for this spread. 

Fig. 13 The left column were created to make it look more informative.

Fig. 14 Instead of having it on one page, I made it a spread to have some impactful  spread in
 my booklet. 

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Project 2 Final Outcome:

Reflections

1. What was your main DESIGN DIRECTION?

My main design concept was to create a clean and informative booklet to the readers, but also look at how to use the spaces to create interesting pages as well so that it keeps the interest for the readers to continue reading the booklet. 

  

2. What was your main AIM in resolving this project?

I was aiming to achieve the same feeling for every spreads so that the whole booklet look same overall. However, same feeling does not mean that it should be boring. I'm also aiming to create interesting layout that makes my reader feel comfortable while looking at it. 

3. What were the tangible, measurable OUTCOMES that you achieved?

I am quite happy and satisfied with my final outcome. I think the layout also turned out quite successful, where there are some interesting layouts and also ended the booklet with really quiet and simple layout. Even though the images are difficult to find, but I still managed to find some suitable images in order to make the booklet look more interesting. 

4. What were your OBSERVATIONS?
I observe that it is much more easier to design a layout with given text and topics. I find the hardest part on this project was that even though it is good with contents and topics give, it is quite difficult to design the layout as the pages are limited. However, I enjoy solving these problems by exploring different kind of layouts in order to achieve what I wanted. 

5. Carry out some REFLECTIONS.
I've learnt how to put a lot of text (which we cannot delete the amount of text) and pictures together as a spread. I appreciate the feedbacks from my lecturer, as I know what was going right and wrong. I am looking forward to explore our Project 3, which is to create a magazine.