Week Thirteen- Hierarchy

Amazon.com is good example of a webpage with understandable hierarchy of information and visuals. The home page clearly displays the shopping departments on the left side, and when you scroll over each main headline a sidebar with more detailed options appears.

After you select your shopping department, in the screen shot I chose books, you move on to the main page of that department. On the left side of the main books page there is a side bar to browse different categories of books such as children's books, cook books, history books, and you can also search by what books are on sale or that are available on Kindle. At the top of the page there is a search tool bar where you can search all books or in a specific book category such as used books and textbooks. As you scroll down the page you can find containers on Books of the Month, Bestsellers, Books on a Budget, Best Books of 2009, etc.

At the bottom of the page you can find the links for Amazon Careers, Press Releases, and Help.

Overall I think the Amazon website is set up in an orderly and appropriate manner that allows for easy searching and browsing, especially considering the volume of products the website sells. Much of websites ease in searching can be contributed to its excellent hierarchy of information and search options.

Tom Kennedy

It was interesting and exciting to be able to listen and converse with an "industry guru" such as Tom Kennedy. Honestly, as a public relations major, I had not heard much about him or what he has done; but, after hearing his views on the convergence of media and the future of multimedia it really made me think of my future as a public relations practitioner. I have thought little of the future potential of storytelling in a dynamic way (such as the Waterlife) until Mr. Kennedy demonstrated the "now" (Darfur on washingtonpost.com) vs the possibilities of "then" (sites such as Waterlife). Yet, his thoughts and our visual comparisons of the present and the future lead me to wonder--what happened to just good storytelling. When I watched the video clip on Darfur, I didn't need the "hoopla" and interactiveness of Waterlife to want to know more--the story itself, the visuals, the words of the people--that made me want to listen, and watch more. Although the possibilities of interactive media are exciting, they aren't necessary. If we as communicators, in whatever sense that may be (journalists, public relations practitioners, photojournalists, etc), tell our stories--their stories, in a compelling way, and do it consistently, yet fresh every time, there won't be a need for the over-glamorized and costly measures of sites like Waterlife.

Magazine Project

The object of Project Four was to create a magazine—cover, jump spread, and feature spread. I chose to do an upscale fashion magazine called “Bourgeoisie”; the feature story is about the fashion trend, animal print.

Cover: I chose a vibrant background color page to draw attention to the magazine—it is a warm color, and people tend to respond positively to warm colors. With a color that bright, I wanted to keep the rest of the cover simple—my magazine is not meant to be on that is sold by cover lines; it is targeted to a specific audience, thus cover lines are not needed. The cover image I found via Google images, I used Photoshop to crop out the background. The magazine’s header is written in Mona Lisa Solid ITC TT, 83 PT; the sub-header is a simple Times, 14 PT; the story’s headline was written in a combination of two fonts—Bordeaux Roman LET, 55 PT (“the” and “issue”) and Mistral, 60 PT (“wild”). I chose to right the magazine’s date in the bottom right hand corner, because although it is small, Times 10 PT, it will also lead the reader to open the magazine. The sub-header, “wild” and the date are all written in a color taken from the model’s face, R=255, G=250, B=244.

Jump: I found the picture using Google images—it already came in this tinted color, so instead of making any changes, I decided to keep it as is, and make the title stand out. I wrote the story’s header in a combination of Edwardian Script, 72 PT and Cracked, 187.92 PT. The pink, which I used for “wild”, “real” and the period at the end of the header, is C,Y,K=0 and M=100. I wrote the deck head in Frutiger LT STD, 18 PT.

Feature: I wanted to make the introduction of my body text different than what I normally see, or than what anyone else would do (i.e. drop cap intro), so I chose to start the story on different levels. The beginning, “...leopard print, tiger...etc”, is written in Frutiger LT STD, 44.104 PT, bold. The second level paragraph is written in Garamond, 12.1 PT, the leading is 21 PT. I wrote the rest of the body text in Frutiger, 10 PT. The leading on the main body text is 14 PT, and the indents are set at 14 PT as well. The pull quote is written in Garamond, 23 PT; I chose to write it in Garamond to create contrast. I also chose to write the intro sentences and the second level paragraph and the main body text in different typefaces (Frutiger, Garamond, Frutiger)—for contrast. My sidebar is written in Garamond, 18 PT and 12 PT. The folio is in the bottom left corner; the page number is written in Garamond, 48 PT and the title is written in Mona Lisa Solid, 12 PT. All the images were found using Google.

magazine project

I chose to graphically design a story about Taylor Swift and her night at the CMA Award Ceremony. Taylor Swift made history by being the youngest person to win the Entertainer of the Year CMA (Country Music Association) Award. Once I saw that she made history, I knew that there would be a ton of stories about her and that it would be great to design. I chose the headline of “Swiftly Making History” because it is a play on her last name, Swift. Also, “swiftly” means moving at a fast pace, which is exactly what she is doing: Taylor is 19-years-old and has already won so many awards for her talents, she also had a big night last night at the AMAs. Since the story features the CMA Award Ceremony, the visuals are limited to that night, where she is wearing the same dress. I tried to incorporate a little more than just the dress and found a picture of her performance to break up the same dress. I used the winners of the other awards to be the alternative story/sidebar for the spread.
I chose to use the colors because they all come from the CMA red carpet backdrop. The light cream color for the background of the spreads, is from the background of the CMA backdrop. The orange font colors I used for the “Swiftly Making History”, the byline, and the sidebar font color are all from the bottom of the CMA Award picture in the backdrop. The red fonts for the deck head and the body font is from the top of the CMA image. The background of the sidebar is the red font color at a tint of 25%. I tried to use the colors from the feature picture to incorporate it through the entire spread.
I used the Cantoria typeface because the sans-serif brings a sort-of country feel with a slight modern twist to help the magazine aspect of things. I chose to use Ex Ponto Pro for the headline because it is like calligraphy. I was looking for a script typeface that looked like it was hand-written, like she was writing a story about her music career. I also used this font in the deck head to emphasize the important words. It was also used in the pull quote to bring some attention to the important quote in the story. I chose to go with Bembo for the rest of the deck head and the body of the story because it is easily readable but a little stylish at the same time. I used Avenir for the captions because it is in the Sans typeface, contrasting the Sans-Serif Bembo. They are smaller fonts are to make the story more of a hierarchy than the captions. The sidebar is in Goudy Sans, which also contrasts Bembo, to bring attention to the alternative text. I used Snell for the header of the Sidebar because I thought the header should be something formal, like something for an award ceremony.
The pictures were limiting of which ones I could use for the spread and for the cover page. The ones for the story were easy because of all the pictures from the awards night. I used the feature image because Taylor was looking over and she looks like she is looking at the header. The other images were from the red carpet, stage, and Taylor’s performance. Also, there are some pictures of the other artists who won for the sidebar. I found my images on Bing Search Engine.
Cover page image: 2848 x 4288 (scaled down by about 50%)
Feature image: 2017 x 3000 (scaled down by 50%)
Kissing the award: 411 x 600 (scaled down by about 75%)
Stage with band: 400 x 307 (scaled down by about 75%)
Performance: 300 x 415
“Fearless” album cover: 170 x 170 (scaled down by 20%)
Darius Rucker: 170 x 170 (scaled down by 45%)
Keith Urban and Brad Paisley: 469 x 512 (scaled down by 80%)

Magazine Project!

Design Strategy:

My intended audience was parents with young children. I entitled the magazine Simplicity in an attempt to bring back simple ideas into the busy lives of people that live in cities. Because of the title I gave the magazine, I did not want the spreads to be too busy. I chose simple photos of children playing outside, and only used a few typefaces.

Typefaces:

The flag is in Snell Roundhand Black, and the coverlines are variations of Adobe Caslon Pro, including Bold, Bold Italic, and Regular. The headlines in the magazine are in Idowild Regular. This is a fun playful type that looks like a child could have written it. The deckhead and article is written in Else NPL Std. I chose this font because it was easy to read.

Color:

I used mostly black, white, and two color swatches that were taken from the cover. The pink used throughout matches the girl’s dress, and is R = 192, G = 96, and B = 97. The light blue is taken from the sky, and is R=207, G=226, and B=97. The background on the jump spread is the same blue used throughout. I used these colors because they matched all of the photos well, and were light and summery which was perfect because this was intended to be the July issue.

Photos:

I took all of the photos I used in this project, with the exception of the ad on the back of the cover. The children photographed are children I babysit during the summer, and all of the photos were taken last summer.

Ira Glass Lecture

I went to this lecture knowing little about Ira Glass. While I have listened to NPR before, (often in the car with parents) I had not heard of his show specifically. So, I wasn't entirely sure of what to expect during the lecture. I was very happily surprised when I found that the time passed very quickly as Glass was humorous and intelligent, and spoke very eloquently. Hendricks Chapel was packed past capacity, and people stood for the entire lecture just to hear him.

He began by entering with the lights off, and spoke for a couple of minutes in the pitch black. It was a different beginning to any lecture I had ever been to, and really got the audience in tune with the concept he was trying to demonstrate, which is that radio is all about the voice. It is different than TV or other mediums in that you can't see the person speaking. This makes it easier to relate to someone. He gave the example of seeing a punk girl versus just hearing her voice. By taking away the usual characteristics of how we go about judging people, you are only left with the raw voice, giving radio a more intimate and emotional appeal. The quote he gave here was "Not seeing has a power in itself."

He spoke about past stories he had broadcast, providing the audience with details we would have no idea of otherwise. He never failed to entertain, and his points always carried a positive message.

He gave advice to the journalism students present, saying,

"Look for stories with surprises. The world is a place where pleasure and discovery are possible, and it makes things seem hopeful."

Glass inspired the packed chapel, and many left laughing as they talked about the funny stories he had mentioned.

Hierarchy

Yahoo! has done a redo on with their site. I think the new one is pretty good. The top is the Yahoo! logo and the search bar. Below the search bar, you see the feature news stories, there are thumbnails to rollover to see the other feature stories. Below that are the other, not-so-feature stories. On the side is the navigation bar, when you rollover the nav bar, you see the weather or the mail or whatever you are "pressing". The Yahoo! website shows hierarchy by making the feature stories in the middle and prominent and allowing the navigations bar to have rollover, where you get a look at what it is you may be pressing.

Magazine

The magazine project was by far the most challenging assignment we’ve had yet. There were so many components and things to remember, both with design and with the technology and programs we needed to use. However, the easiest part for me was choosing my story. I love music, and I knew that I wanted to do a music themed spread, which is why I immediately searched Rolling Stone archives on the computer. I grew up listening to the Beatles and finding an article on them gave me the inspiration I needed to get started. I knew right away that I wanted to somehow incorporate their infamous font into the design and was able to download it off the Internet and apply it to Font Books on the computer. After I chose that font I wanted a cleaner sans serif typeface that didn’t compete with the Bootle (Beatles) typeface but added to it in a clean and simple way. That typeface is ITC Avant Garde Gothic std. My favorite style of that font was the extra light because it stood out while still giving a soft and clean aesthetic.

Once I had my two main font families I needed to come up with a theme and a title for the magazine itself. My searching through Internet archives for both the story and the photos led me to the idea of creating a magazine that is a music history, past and present archive magazine; one that brings the past classic music and molds it with the present design and technology of today. The font for the magazine cover is Americana std. It has a nice height and weight and I really liked the roundness and width of each letter. Lastly, I needed a font for the copy, and your lecture on magazine and book typefaces that worked for long stories was more helpful than I can describe. I went with Caslon because it is very accessible and readable and its tight fit and texture can withstand tight leading.

Dealing with online photographs was definitely one of the hardest parts of the project but when I saw the picture of the four Beatles peering behind the red door I immediately knew I wanted that for the cover. It is simple and not crowded and the red color really stood out. I also found great images of the Beatles with Ed Sullivan, which ties in directly with the story. The red is an important part of the design because I wanted to do a red, black and white color scheme, working with different opacities and shades of all three. I eye dropped the red from the door and used it throughout the spreads, highlighting and unifying the images and type. Also, the first spread I desaturated the image and left Ringo’s umbrella red in Photoshop to give that pop and contrast that is constant throughout.

My headlines and titles for everything all tie into the Beatles and into the story of their American debut on the Ed Sullivan show and how after 40 years they are still being celebrated and remembered with such vigor and love. The magazine title deals with history, the first spread title “In my life there are places I remember” is a line from one of their songs and correlates to the story by going along with the idea of four decades of time have passed in your life and their music is still prominent, as well as the place they remember being the Ed Sullivan show. The sidebar title is also the name of another Beatles song and goes along with the idea of each member’s favorite tune. I also had a lot of fun playing with drop caps and pull quotes.

The presentation and assemblage of this project is extremely important and I have to say that I had a lot of trouble with printing and mounting. My first problem came with the printers not being calibrated, causing my spreads to look completely different than they did on the screen. I changed opacities, colors and fonts to try and make the spreads print in a readable and attractive way, however I could not get it right. I’m handing in only half of the failed print outs to show you the trouble I had and my attempts to problem solve. When I finally did get the print to look somewhat how I wanted, I fudged the mounting. I tried over and over after that to print another copy that look right and I couldn’t, hence why my magazine is a little off on the edges. On my markup sheet you can see how all of the margins and cropping are supposed to look and I apologize for the poor mounting.

Photos:http://www.last.fm/music/The+Beatles/+images

Story:http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/the_beatles_beatlemania

Ira Glass Response

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Ira Glass speak about the power of storytelling. The way that he incorporates his own commentary with clips of interviews, ambient sound, and music is amazing to me. He stated that there is something so powerful about the human voice because you can hear when people are speaking from the heart. I think that this was very evident in the clips of people’s voices that he played for us, especially the voice of the female gang member.

His advice to improve our reporting by becoming involved and interacting with our interviewees is a very valuable tip. It is clear that Glass has perfected this skill because his stories always seem to get to the heart of others’ emotions. It was amazing to hear that during his 59-minute show, people who tune in listen to about 48 minutes on average. This is proof that the approach used in telling a story is key.

Although the stories that air on “This American Life” are not always interesting in themselves, the way in which they are told draws in the listener and makes it impossible for them to turn off the radio. Glass has an impeccable ability to build a story in a way that engages people and makes them want to know what’s going to happen next. I hope that in the future I am able to harness this ability and use it to gather valuable information as an interviewer and a journalist.

EXTRA CREDIT Opportunities

:: Post about Tom Kennedy’s talk to the class last Tuesday
:: Post about IRA GLASS event on Wednesday if you went
:: Post about Thursday night’s event with Tom Kennedy if you went
:: Post about the MoMA Bauhaus exhibit currently up if you go over the break

ALSO, here’s the NYT article that Prof. Taylor mentioned in class. Thanks also to Elana Bodow for posting on the blog before we even got a chance to bring it up in class!

Don’t forget about your outstanding blog posts. E-mail me if you want an account of what your record looks like for the semester.

ALSO, e-mail if you are unable to make class this Tuesday before the holiday.

Project #4 Post

From the beginning, I knew I wanted to art direct an article that had to do with celebrities. I sat down and began to think about my favorite celebrity. I have been passionate about Angelina Jolie for years so I figured it would be interesting to learn more about her. The article I chose focuses on how Angelina loves her children and wants to adopt more. Jolie claims her children are very special to her and make her feel like a woman.

However, finding pictures were quite difficult. Although there are numerous pictures of Angelina Jolie everywhere, I wanted a clear, clean picture for the cover that brought out all of Angelina’s beautiful features. After researching, I came across a great picture that really would be great for the cover because it would draw the reader’s attention right away. The background color that came with the picture also helped make the cover visually appealing. I chose the title “Craze” because it seemed like a title that would attract readers who love to learn about celebrities. For my first spread, I came across an image that I thought would make the reader want to read the article. The image is very intense and brings out Jolie’s eyes and makes it as if she is staring right at you. I chose “Into the Womb” as my title because Angelina loves adopting/having children. I made the “O” in womb huge and put the deck head inside of it because I thought it was a clever way of making it look like a womb. For the second spread, I wanted to make sure I included a picture of Angelina and some of her children. I could not find a picture that was visually appealing with all of her children so I just used the best image I could find. In terms of my sidebar, I decided to use an image of a map and show where each of Angelina’s kids are from. She loves having a diverse family so I thought that definitely was an interesting fact and a map was the best way to describe it.

I chose to use Garamond for my title. I thought it was simple, elegant, and visually appealing. For the cover line, I used Trajan Pro for Angelina Jolie because I wanted to emphasize that the article was about her and make it all capitalized. I then used Times for the rest of the cover line because it was simple and clear. For my title on the first spread, I used Bodoni SvtyTwo OS ITC TT because it was bold and clear. For the deck head, I used Helvetica because I wanted contrast. For my body text, I used Times as well. For the captions and sidebar, I used Helvetica. I chose all of these typefaces because I thought they all went well together and I did not want a typeface that was too crazy. I wanted typefaces that were clear and concise and visually appealing.

In terms of color, I chose to use white for the title. For the cover line, I wanted to change it up and bit and used white for Angelina Jolie, but then used the color of her lips for the rest of the cover line (R=237, G=212, and B=205). For the first spread, I used black to match her shirt. I thought using red for the deck head worked well with black. I continued to use black for the body text and then drop in red for an important quote and for the first letter of the article. For the sidebar I stuck with white because it went well with the background of the side bar. The background of my side bar was a sage green that matched the shirt of one of her children in the picture (R=141, G-150, B=133).

IMAGES:

COVER: fliiby.com/images/ _original/9b0ecbqugj.jpg-DPI=200

FIRST SPREAD: www.muskurahat.us/.../ angelina_jolie01.jpg DPI=150

SECOND SPREAD LEFT SIDE: www.babble.com/CS/blogs/ famecrawler/2007/09/1.. DPI=200

SECOND SPREAD RIGHT: pakalert.files.wordpress.com/ 2009/01/world-map= DPI 150

Magazine Project Post: Claire Bourque

Claire Bourque

Rationale

Project #4: Magazine

November 17, 2009

Design Strategy:

I began this project by finding an article that I would be passionate about art directing. I have a strong interest in India, and more specifically the film industry there, which is commonly referred to as Bollywood. The article I chose focuses on the style of Bollywood films and also how it is rivaling Hollywood. The next step in my design process was to search for images that portrayed the intensity of Bollywood. I also knew that I wanted to find a nice picture of Mumbai to show people how far the city has come.

To begin with my cover, I chose the most intense picture to place here because I want the audience to be drawn to my magazine. The women's eye is staring right into the viewer's. Also, this picture is fascinating to someone passing by because of all the intricate jewelry she's covered in. It is not a typical face a person would encounter on a magazine. I used the title, "Discover," for my magazine because I thought it gave a little mystery as to what could be inside. I imagine my magazine to somewhat resemble a travel magazine, but more of the culture side of travel.

I chose the fountain dance seen for my first spread, because I thought it gave the best taste of what to expect from a Bollywood film. I also liked how heavily it contrasted with the orange background color. I wrote my deck head to not only connect to the image on that spread, but to also give a hint of what the article had to offer. For my title, I used a play on words with the song, "Hooray for Hollywood." I also played with letter placement to connect to the way the Hollywood sign looks on the hill.

For the second spread I wanted to make sure I was able to fit a lot of the article, because the story is very interesting and at this point my audience would be drawn in. I placed the outlined woman image on the top left, because I wanted to give the reader a place to start. I also wanted to use her facial expression to lead the viewer around the page. I used a long horizontal image of Mumbai along the bottom to balance my long vertical side bar on the right. I chose the picture placed on top in the center, because of its great color combinations and facial expressions.

Typefaces:

I chose Adobe Caslon for all of my body text, because I thought it was clean and readable, which is what the busyness of my design needed to pull it together. I liked Gill Sans Ultra Bold for my headline, because I thought it mimicked the Hollywood sign while giving it a unique twist. I used Antique Olive for my cover line and deck head, because I thought it contrasted nicely with the other typefaces, but was still very simple.

Color:

I chose 3 colors to work with for this project. I chose the warm orange color (pantone 123) for its beautiful contrast with the blue shades in pictures and also for the way it picked up with warm orange tones within pictures. I color used for the text (r= 182 g=41 b=34) because it played nicely with the other warm tone in the background and also picked up certain colors in photographs keeping with the Gestalt principals. Lastly, the color used for my sidebar (c=15 m=100 k=100 y=0) is similar to the text color, but I wanted to find something a little lighter and brighter to draw the reader's eye in that direction.

Images:

#1 resolution 300 pixels

1600 by 1200 pixels

http://bollywoodfoodclub.wordpress.com/2008/02/06/happy-ash-wednesday/

#2 resolution 72 pixels

1535 by 2185 pixels

http://mrsfilm.pib.ir/172318/زيرنويس+فارسی---۶۴.html

#3 resolution 300 pixels

3000 by 2913 pixels

http://todaysseniorsnetwork.com/'bombay_dreams'_entertains.htm

#4 resolution 96 pixels

1600 by 1200 pixels

http://www.wallpaperseek.com/aishwarya-rai-25-wallpapers_w4152.html

#5 resolution 72 pixels

2281 by 885 pixels

http://w1.siemens.com/en/megacities/mumbai.htm

#6 resolution 72 pixels

450 by 327 pixels

http://chandrakantha.com/articles/indian_music/nritya/bollywood.html

#7 resolution 300 pixels

2853 by 4500 pixels

http://blog.taragana.com/e/2009/07/30/vidya-balan-signed-up-for-yash-chopras-next-20686/

#8 resolution 96 pixels

1200 by 1844 pixels

http://blog.taragana.com/e/2009/05/09/hrithik-roshans-kites-to-be-showcased-at-cannes-3538/

#9 resolution 72 pixels

190 by 143 pixels

http://www.sami232.blogfa.com/86102.aspxoHo

Logo Re-Do

Stationary- I made the boxes in the corner a lot smaller so to not compete with the shoe. I really liked the white space on the margins and I moved up my information from the base line a little further to the top of the boxes to create more space. At the bottom

Envelope- I adjusted the size of the envelope to be a standard size and also increased the font on the back flap to make it more legible.

Business Card- For my business car I changed the design somewhat. I removed all of the writing from the front of the card and increased the size of my logo somewhat. I think on the back did a clipping mask of the shape of the shoe from the front with my contact information. I did not want to make the reader search for my information however so I made a line with my complete information in white. I think decided to use the same font from my logo to write the purpose of my card. I did a sort of inverted variation of the color for the back with the white squares and red background for a nice contrast.

Kristen Jones

Kate Brunkhorst, Project Posting #4 Magazine Spread Cover and Rationale

I started out with a few ideas for my magazine spread. I have a collection of old vintage records that I was initially going to photograph and do something with, but then I read a few articles in a Bridal magazine and received new inspiration: eco friendly weddings. You would be surprised how few articles there are about the topic, but I managed to find one that sparked my imagination to incorporate the various plays on the word “green.” Among the internships that I am applying for this summer are a few high-profile wedding /event planning firms in New York City, so I also wanted to use this opportunity to have something relevant in my portfolio. “Unique” wedding ideas have always appealed to me, and it’s kind of disappointing that there aren’t really any publications out there dedicated strictly to environmentally friendly or non-mainstream wedding ideas- so I “created” one!

My greatest inspiration stemmed from one of my favorite wedding photographers, Julie Harris, who actually only took the main photo of the husband and wife on my jump spread. The woman with the cowboy boots was a really funky picture choice that I thought fit well with my classy/quirky magazine theme. I wanted to emphasize that I didn’t want it to be a trashy or youthful publication, but that it still focused on a customer who was dedicated to their unique sense of self and to saving the planet in some form or fashion. I pulled the teal color of my headline from the stars in her boots.

As far as the article itself, it wasn’t very well written, but it had some neat ideas for green weddings. I came up with the headline: “Verdant Beginnings, Mindful Tomorrows,” which I then correlated for my idea to have a sapling on the first spread with the first half of the headline, and then a full grown tree on the second spread along with the second half of the headline. It suggests going from a humble beginning (in marriage) to a more established tomorrow through the idea of a visual family tree, in which I wanted to include picture frames where aspects from Jen and Barry’s “actual wedding” stemmed.

I also wanted to make the spreads look like a classy bride’s wedding planner/binder, so I created tabs on the side that made it look like the articles were elements from her scrapbook. This gave me the idea for some elements to look scrappy (the newspaper) and handwritten (see the re-used wedding rings). The article focuses on localized weddings, too, which plays back to the idea of family, roots, and establishing a new life on a green foundation.

Usability

CNN. com homepage has good usability because it enables you to search for an article as well as give you the main event of that week. Each headline explains what the article is going to be about. Not only that, but the top of the homepage consists of all the various categories such as politics, health, sports, business, etc and it is very easy to find the type of article you are looking for. The page is very organized in terms of its usability and provides the viewer with clear content.

Kate Brunkhorst, Project Posting #4 Magazine Spread Images

Project 4- Magazine Design Post- Matt Colon

Story Decision: I immediately knew I wanted to design a ski magazine, since I thoroughly enjoy skiing, winter is coming up, and I have had lots of experience reading them since our family subscribes to one at a condo we use up in Vermont. When looking for ski articles, at first I just found a lot of very standard articles just describing mountains. But while browsing, I found the one I ended up using, and liked the old-timey focus of it and thought that could lend itself to interesting and more original art direction and use of pictures.

Typeface Choices: A lot of the typefaces I used came from your recommendations in class, and upon trying them, found they worked well. Though ski articles with a more modern focus might be better set in a sans serif, the antiquated focus of mine lent itself nicely to Corona, a serif font. To mix it up, I do use a sans serif, Frutiger, here and there, such as the sidebar. For the magazine title and folios, I was just browsing fonts and found a font perfect for its look and even for its name—Skia. The coincidence of that is too ridiculous to even reflect on. Also the magazine title, Traverse, allowed me to have a “traverse” built into the S by adding lines at both ends and setting the S a small bit lower than the rest of the word. I use a few more fonts here and there for more individual purposes—Edwardian Script for the “Holiday Edition” type, Graphite Std for the article title, and Centaur MT Std for the cover lines and deckhead.

Pictures Used:

Cover image (old photo of two people)
http://theinvisibleagent.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/ski11.jpg?w=460&h=604 (72 dpi)
Snowy scene (in goggles on back)
http://www.eddiebyrne.com/wordpress/site/images/BrainardLake_CMC.jpg (300 dpi)
Scott logo
http://snow.co.nz/media/uploads/2009/05/scott_title.jpg (72 dpi)
Opening spread (cabin interior)
http://photographybydon.com/blog/uploaded_images/_DSF2156CabinBedWindow-746495.JPG (96 dpi)
Fireplace
http://panchita.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/fire_in_fireplace.jpg (180 dpi)
Snowy nighttime cabin
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/112/300695226_83ebb30ac6_o.jpg (72 dpi)
Wooden skis
http://merriwood.com/_antiqueskis-store/images/IMG_045356.JPG (72 dpi)
Stew
http://www.thesunblog.com/gourmetgal/Stew.jpg (100 dpi)

Color Information: I chose colors based on what would convey the kind of mood my article was focusing on—a cozy, warm kind of atmosphere. As such, the image of a warmly glowing cabin on a nice ski mountain immediately popped into my head. As a result, I use a lot of warm browns and some darker blues for contrast and to be representative of the cold night outside the warm cabin. To do this I drew almost every color I used from the various photos that I had obtained and edited in Photoshop to give them a nicer glow. The gray background for the body type was drawn from snow in one of my pictures as well. As such, I use a very consistent color palette that helps keep my article consistent and connected.

(Note): When I clicked the “Print Grids” button for printing my grayscale images, they didn’t show up at all, no matter what I did. I tried about ten times or so. In the end I got a ruler and did the best I could to show the grids I used but I couldn’t do that for the baseline grid. However, I did utilize the baseline grid with 14p spacing (which is my leading value) and lined everything up accordingly to it.

Radar Magazine

Design Strategy:

After choosing to use Jennifer Aniston for my magazine and having read the article I selected, I knew my design strategy. The article focuses on how even still at 40 years old and having been single for 4 years now, Jennifer Aniston is still just as beautiful and carefree as she was years ago. I wanted this to be reflected in all of my images. To do that, I decided to use only pictures of her smiling and seeming happy and comfortable with herself, nothing too serious or fashion magazine like. I also wanted the photos to show off her body and not have her completely covered up by clothing so that it visually verbalizes how the article emphasizes how great she looks at 40 years old. Since the pictures were all very natural looking and not so posed, I wanted to reflect that in a minimalist and simplistic layout. I didn’t want to weigh down my layout with too many pictures or pull quotes. I chose to title my magazine Radar as I wanted it to be a celebrity based magazine and have it emphasize how through the paparazzi and media, the personal lives of celebrities like Jennifer Aniston are always on the public radar. For my sidebar I made a time line of Jennifer Aniston over the years, showing how she has aged, but still looks beautiful. I even chose to feature an advertisement on the back cover of my magazine that Aniston did when she was the face of SmartWater.

Typeface Selection:

The typefaces that I used all throughout my magazine were all on the list of the 10 text faces you can rely on that you gave us in class. The title of my magazine on the front cover is Bembo Std regular 185 pt. I knew I wanted a serif font and I particularly like the way that the legs of the R’s had a curvature to them. For my cover lines I used both Century Expanded Italic 48pt. and a variety of weights and heights of Frutiger LT Std. The headline of my second spread is Garamond Bold 90 pt. My byline is ITC Berkeley Oldstyle Std book 22 pt and my deck head is ITC Berkeley Oldstyle Std italic 18 pt. I wanted all three of these texts to be different but yet still work together. The serifs of the two typefaces make them mix well. The body font of my article is Garamond Regular 12 pt, except for the 15 pt I used on the second spread to effectively lead into the story on the next page. My sidebar is all weights and heights of Frutiger LT Std because the sans serif provides a good contrast to all of the serifs I had in my layout.

Color:

I used three colors consistently throughout my layout that I felt worked well together. The blue and orange were the main colors I used and are harmonious because they are opposite each other on the color wheel. The blue is CMYK: 75.23, 15.17, 34.49, 0.11. The orange is CMYK: 8.37, 58.7, 51.25, 0.08. The third color brown was a nice complement to the two and I used that as the background color for my sidebar. The brown is CMYK: 50.91, 67.13, 57.21, 36.04.

Magazine Project Post

Design Strategy:

When trying to decide on what story to use for this project, my first thought was to find one about Padma Lakshmi, the host of Top Chef, because it’s one of my favorite shows and I thought that I could make a nice food magazine. I had a very hard time finding pictures of Padma that were large enough for the layout, so I decided to change my subject. I then decided upon Ellen Page because she recently starred in a movie called “Whip It” that was directed by Drew Barrymore, which one of my best friends from elementary school is in also). I liked that the story I found from USA Today gave an overview of where Ellen stands with her career right now. She’s becoming more daring and independent, and I think that we will be seeing her in more movies in the future. My first step was finding the images I would use in my layout. I chose a large image of Ellen for the cover spread, and although the spread is pretty minimal, I think it complements the softness of the image. I then chose images of Ellen with Drew Barrymore, an image of Ellen’s character in “Whip It” and three small images from other movies for the jump spread and the sidebar. The image that I chose for the cover is a very compelling image because it appears that Ellen is looking directly at the reader. There was also a great amount of space around her in the picture where I could place cover lines.

Choice of Typeface

On the cover I chose to use ITC Quorum Std Black because I thought that it was an interesting typeface with the points on each of the letters. It also is very bold and draws the attention of the reader. I made this typeface white and the apple of the “I” red so that the magazine title as well as the special touch of the apple were sure to stand out. For the cover lines I chose to use Gill Sans Ultra Bold Regular. Because of the simplicity of the san serif type and the thick lines in the letters, this font is easy to read and draws the readers eye. I added touches of red (C=3 M=99 Y=100 K=0) throughout the cover to tie in with Ellen’s bright red lips and the red of her revealed underwear. The red also ties the cover lines to the apple in “BiTE”.

On the cover spread I chose to use ITC Kabel Std Bold and Book because I think that the quirky typeface is appealing and relates to the quirky characters which Ellen Page often plays in her movies.. I especially like the lowercase “G”s in this font. I used Scotch Roman MT Std for the folios on my pages because it is a discreet font that doesn’t draw attention away from the article, but still is visible and looks sophisticated.

On the jump spread, I used Janson Text LT Std 55 Roman for my body text. I chose this because I thought that it was easily readable and I liked the soft shapes of the letters because it gave the spread a feminine touch. I used Stone Sans Sem ITC TT Semi fir my sidebar because I wanted it to stand apart from the rest of the article. I still needed something that could be read easily, but I didn’t want it to blend it with everything else of the page.

Color:

On cover: red (C=3 M=99 Y=100 K=0)

Cover spread: red (C=30 M=100 Y=95 K=0)

Jump spread: red (C=0 M=98 Y=100 K=0) gray (C=66 M=59 Y=58 K=41)

The red colors on the cover, cover spread, and jump spread were used as small touches to draw the readers eye across the page and to tie the spreads together. Although the reds were different, It think that they were similar enough to create cohesion. I used different shades because I drew the red colors from images present of that particular spread. I sampled a dark gray from the image of Ellen Page and Drew Barrymore to use for the sidebar. I needed the sidebar to stand out on its own, but to not look randomly placed on the page.

Photos:

Cover:

72 pixels/in

photographer: Collier Schorr

Cover Spread:

72 pixels/in

Jump Spread:

1. 72 pixels/in

photographer: Peggy Sirota

2. 72 pixels/in

Magazine Project Post

When deciding what story to do, I knew I had to do something with music. Music is a huge interest of mine, and I knew it would work better if I did something I was interested in. I found the Beatles breakup story on the Rolling Stone website. Going through the story, I used words that, to me, really represented the Beatles. Peace, Love, and the 60’s were all things I thought of. I wanted my magazine to be a music magazine, and I brainstormed idea of what I wanted the title. I used the name Revolution, because it represents the Beatles, and it has a music feel to it. The cover lines are on the left side, and the Beatles story is on the right, because I needed to separate it as a feature story of the article.

The title page has a purple color, because the picture has a purple tone, and I wanted to carry that over to the text. Not only did the purple tonality attract me to this picture, I also really liked how the picture is pulling the reader in. All of their arms are open, and the picture is very inviting. I knew peace was a huge part of the Beatle’s band and I wanted to represent that in my deckhead. I left the peace sign open, because peace was broken within the band. When setting up my text on the final spread, I used three columns, because I felt it made the text the most organized. In order to separate the pieces of the story even further, I decided to use the sunflowers to break up the text. I used the picture in the middle, because when I saw it, I was able to feel the real passion of peace that the Beatles always had. The Beatles affected the world with their music, and I really think this picture is a great representation of this spreading of peace as well as the end of the Beatles. The picture on the bottom left has a warm tonality, and it also was taken towards the end of the Beatle’s career. I also really liked how Ringo (2^nd from right) is looking up towards the text. I used the contrasts of yellow and purple in my sidebar. Overall, I wanted the magazine to have a vintage feel, and I felt the purple and yellow really achieved the look I was going for. The purple is C-41 M-81 Y-0 K-0, and the yellow, which was taken from the sunflowers, is C-0 M-0 Y-100 K-0. All the photos were scanned from John, Paul, George, & Ringo: The Definitive Illustrated Chronicle of the Beatles, 1960-1970: Rare Photographs, Ephemera, and Day-by-Day Timeline by Tim Hill. The page numbers are written on the marked up copy.

For typography, I wanted to keep the vintage feel of the magazine, so I looked up fonts online called Bellbottom Laser (cover) and Waukegan (Title). My main text font is Caslon, because I wanted to keep the readability and keep a nice contrast with the other fonts. I also used Clearface Gothic as the text of the deckhead, and the text of the sidebar. The sans serif fonts made me think of the 60’s, and I felt they had a nice readability to them as well.

-Briana Bartel