Print week!

This spread would have to definitely be my favourite in print! I love how the lines draw the eye to the grouped work. I believe it has been really well thought out, planned and executed. 

My major concern with this page printed is the closeness of the vertical text to the middle of the magazine. I beleive this is due to the binding used. If the magazine was put together using a larger slug, it would have avoided this issue.

Today we got our magazine back from the printer. It was great to see the final product and how it looked at a professionally, printed level. There are a few minor problems that only showed after the printing stage, however overall I am very happy. 

The following is the final version of my magazine pages. I am extremely happy with how they have all come together, and it has been a huge process to get them to this point. The process has included multiple edits, prints, feedback from numerous sources and working well together as a collective whole. 

This week saw the development of the magazine in Adobe InDesign. This has allowed me to see how the pages now look and make informed decisions on what does and does not work. I have found a range of strengths and weaknesses in my design, and plan to now go through all my pages and make the appropriate changes. 

I wanted to have a full page image on the left side of the spread, but feel that the artwork does not give the right 'feel'. This may be because most illustrations do not have full and bold backgrounds to fill the entire page. I now aim to look for another image, likely a photograph of the designer to fill the page. 

I love how this spread has turned out, and think the blue within the photograph really meets the style rule 'pops of colour'. However, I did do a test print of this spread and found out the picture is slightly pixelated. Therefore it may be beneficial to find a larger image, with the same features to use. 

I like the use of vertical text, however I feel that it could be used in a better context on this page. I am currently considering moving it onto the left page, with the images in between. This will open the right page, and allow more room for written content in the editorial. 

This is the first draft of the contents page in Adobe InDesign. I am not very happy with how the page balances and feel that I need to look at an alternative gird layout to give a more balanced feel that better fits the style. 

This week we have made some fundemental decisions as a team for the journey of our magazine. These include the typefaces, content distribution and developed some basic wireframes. We plan to compare all of our elements to ensure style consistency. Overall we are making good progress and the skeleton of the magazine is beginning to come together. 

The plan for the final spead of this feature artcile is to fill one of the pages with a beautiful picture of the designer and possibly a quote that caps the article. 

This spread was planned out with a large overlapping image to really demonstrate that it is the start of a feature article. This image will join the pages together and make a bold statement. 

The editorial wireframe is where I plan to really utillise the simplicity and white aspect of the design rules. I like the creative use of the text by positioning it vertical down the centre of the page, and believe this will be a nice feature to include across more pages in the magazine.

Contents Spread: I have had the most trouble trying to plan this spread, with not much vision in sight. On the left hand side I have tried to showcase the white space, with the publsihing information in the bottom left corner. Where I am struggling the most is trying to align the content information. I plan to look at some more inspiration on how to set out this page more effectively in the chosen style. 

At this point in time, these are the typefaces that we have decided to work with for our magazine. We believe they are classy with a touch of feminism, perfectly portraying the overall style of the magazine. I beleive that the different weights contrast each other nicely and add depth. However, I feel that there may be too many font combinations and we could perhaps do without Open Sans. We will initally see how well they work with one another and then decide on the best combinations. 

Our team has decided on a fashion magazine called Q for this project. We have dedicated the following week to conducting our own research on different themes and styles for inspiration. After a team meeting we have decided on a style and a few consistent elements that will be featured in all of our work.
- Style: Fashion: Class, sophisticated, bold, feminine
- Black and white imagery with pops of colour
- Strong imagery
- Use of thin lines

- White space
- Layouts that make use of both pages and dont restrict the content

The style of the magazine featured shows consistent elements from all of our research. As a team we have chosen this style to refer back to, ensuring we all have a consistent understanding of the path we plan to take the magazine along .

Research: I liked this style as I believe it has a high impact by using the dark saturation of the black. The text is nicely positioned and contrasts well with the white space that surrounds it. I believe that the simplicity of this magazine article is what makes it so interesting and unique. 

I like this image as it has a dark, but quirky feel to it, with an interesting use of type as a feature. It is a very bold design and the heavy use of black makes an impacting statement.