Belle

WORKBOOK

Introduction: Design an etirely new publication. For this option you will need to name, and develop a concept for a magazine that doesn’t necessarily exist. You may select any subject matter that you deem appropriate and use any images or writing you find as the content for your publication. You will need to find articles to work on and a good place to do this is online blogs/zines.

Minimum Requirements: 2 Cover options2 Table of Contents (2 pages or 1 spread minimum)2 Departments (2 pages each, or 1 spread each)2 Feature Articles (4 pages each minimum or 2 spreads)1 iphone/mobile version with a minimum of the following screens: cover, contents, feature article (a mobile version of one of your print concepts)

Wedding Belle

MAGAZINE RESEARCH1 2

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The cover of Azure is on a three column grid, with a main magazine title. Everything is right aligned and the typeface looks something similar to Century Gothic. Except for the tagline all of the text is in caps in either white or yellow text. I really like the alignmnet and the heiarchy in this cover is effective and draws attention to the featured article green ideas

The title page for Azure magazine is a collage of pictures I like the placement of the numbers in the pictures. The pictures also have heiarchy and support everything else in the magazine. The text has a bold heading all caps with a smaller 8pt font text underneath. The page number is out to the side and I think it is an organized way of displaying information.

This spread is mainly informational although it also has hiearchy with the quote at the top with the large quotation and the medium sized picture. The article is question and answer, the text at the beginning is bold and it explains the rest of the article. Having the text bold separates itself from the rest of the article. At the beginning of each Q&A it has in bold the initals of the persons name. That makes it very clear who is talking. The text is separated by one tab and there are no indents.

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5Growing Up article has a very clean an effective layout on a three column grid. It has a strong title at the bottom that explains what the topic is going to be by the lines pointing up. The title has rounded edges and also supports what the title says. I like how clean the design is, I think that is one thing I need to work on. The beginning of the article is in green text and the main text is in black. The main text is in garamond or a serif font similar.

This spread has a main picture supported by two others. I like the way the collaged their images and the placement of the blue square that gives the credits to the picture. I was thinking about also re-creating a interior design magazine for our project so it was helpful to see how they displayed so many pictures in a clean and organized matter. The text at the bottom is placed in a three column grid with a blue bold heading all with a small tab at the beginning.

I think the reason I used this pictures as one of my references is because of the clean layout. I love the way the title intersects with the main text. The layout looks like a three column grid and the typeface for the title is a sans serif, all caps, white and black, and it is condensed. The grayscale color scheme is very appealing to me I think it created harmony throughout the piece.

This spread is a croped picture of a man with the color scheme of purple, blue, orange and yellow. These spreads are placed in the magazine to create a break in the magazine where there isn’t a lot of text. This layout just has three lines of a serif text on a white background.

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I loved this magazine! The layouts for these spreads were very modern but they stuck to the five column grid. I like the white space between the pictures and how it allows your eye to travel throughout. The credits for the pictrues are in the green type on the second page on the top. It is obvious that those were planned into the design rather than an after thought. I always seem to forget and then have to redesign my ideas.

I liked how they kept the theme from the growing up spread I talked about on the last page with the green lines pointing upwards. The columns of text are in a serif font with a slight indent.

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I liked this spread because of the layout of the different objects and the message that went along with it. Each of the titles that go along with the object start with a quote in a bold san serif font followed by the name and their position in italics. I like the way these items are placed with the tan background and a shadow.

The main focal pint in this page is the large picture at the bottom with the pencils pointing in different directions and the bold title Curiosity. The layout is in a two column grid starting with a large letter E, and the rest of the text is indented. The text under curiosity is italic and it is double spaced.

I thought that this layout was effective because it carried on through multiple pages. I liked the use of typography. The typeface for the letter A is Bodoni. I liked the horizontal alignment of the spread and also the two column grid.

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This two column grid organized the type and phogographs well. I like all of the alignment and the balance throughout the page. The main body text is a sans serif font. The folio is in the center towards the fold of the magazine and it starts with the name in bold and then states summer 2012.

The main focal pint in this page is the large picture at the bottom with the pencils pointing in different directions and the bold title Curiosity. The layout is in a two column grid starting with a large letter E, and the rest of the text is indented. The text under curiosity is italic and it is double spaced.

I thought that this layout was effective because it carried on through multiple pages. I liked the use of typography. The typeface for the letter A is Bodoni. I liked the horizontal alignment of the spread and also the two column grid.

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Systems: I don’t think I could possibly write everything I have learned about systems so far but I’m going to try. I’ve learned there are systems everywhere! Magazines have good systems but even the Muppets have a system. We talked about in class how when the Muppets sleep they turn away from the camera because they can’t blink. Itunes has a great visual language that makes up there system. I believe that is a large contribu-tion to the reason why itunes is so successful. I never understood the importance of a system until this class, it is a visual langague that expresses a concept, the system in a magazine changes depending on issue and featured articles. Some of the things that stay the same are the folio’s, mastheads, fonts, and general idea. Althougt these things can change there is always a reason for the change. Everything works together,

We have talked a lot about the magazine Wired. They have a wonderful and complex system. From issue to issue their system changes so often it is hard to see some of the trends but they always have a consistant style and theme to what they are doing in their maga-zine. Their featured article is usually on the cover and the colors and style of that depend on each other.

I want my system to communicate an idea and to hava an overall theme thoughout my piece that can vary from month to month. We talked in class about how a good system will drive your ideas. Most im-portantly in class today I learned that we should MAKE MISTAKES. By making mistakes we will over time learn what mistakes not to make. By starting out early in the brainstorming process by making mistakes we will learn how to stretch our-selves and learn what works and what doesn’t work.

Grid: I’ve been learning a lot about the grid and how im-portant it is when it comes to designing a magazine. I found a web site called thegridsystem.com. It was a helpful website in figuring out more about the gird.

Some definitions that I was reminded of are: Module-horizontal gid and a Measure- width of a column

Baseline grid- when there is alignmnet horizontal-ly. I learned that a grid should keep the same rules as a poster using the 25-5-5 rule where you use heiarchy in your design.

WEDDINGBelleWEDDING Belle

WEDDING Belle

WEDDINGBelle

WEDDINGBelle

WEDDING Belle

WEDDING Belle

WEDDING

SOMETINGSOMETHING

NEWOLD

SOMETHING BORROWED

SOMETHING BLUE

Content Exploration: I was really excited for this project because this is something I want to consider for my future career, working on a magazine or a catalog. I thought it would be a fun to create a bridal magazine because I’m engaged right now and I’ve been looking at a lot of magazines to prepare for my wedding. For this magazine I wanted to specialize it at the beginning because it can be a very broad subject with everything that is included in a wedding. Some options to specify my magazine might include: hair, dresses, food, venue, fowers, gridesmaids, cakes, engagement photos, decoration trends,stationary, DIY crafts, and thank you gifts. I also thought it would be interesting to have different issues including: indoor outdoor issues, a magazine all about budgeting, dream weddings, destination, preperation or seasons. If I choose to create a issue about seasons I would include dresses, flowers, colors, decoration trends, bridal party and honeymoons for the different department pages.

Department Icons: Going on from the content exploration I’m leaning towards creating magazine issues based on the seasons of the year. I thought it would go along with the icons I choose for hte magazine and make it fun and interesting from month to month as the seasons change. The icons below are a few categrories that I thought would be fun to have in the magazine. I want the style of the icons to go along with the style of the magazine but these are a few ideas I had in my head that I wanted to get down on paper. It makes the project so much easier when you are really interested in what you are working on. Mikenzie gave me some good websites to seart for creative wedding ideas. They include greylikesweddings.com, greenweddingshoes.com and stylemepretty.com, I’m going to search those for some more ideas!!!

Masthead Exploration: I guess I was surprised by the concept that is behind the idea of mastheads. It was fun to explore why some magazines did the things that they did. I had fun exploring different masthead options but I had no idea how hard it would be to have something so conceptual. I played around with different cursive fonts that connect with other letters and with the help of the book “Dangerous Curves” I was able to come up with a few ideas. For my overall magazine I wanted something very feminine and conceptual. The ideas I have right now if to have the word bell intertwine with the word wedding. I’m still exploring some different ideas and I’m having fun trying out new fonts. I found the web site losttype.com which has helped me out a little.

Dangerous Curves These are scans from the book Dangerous curves, it was a helpful aid while I was finding out my masthead designs, He plays around with type untill he has 20 different options that all look good, his attention to detial is amazine. I started out by copying some of his cursive letters and then tried applying it out on the words wedding belle. It was helpful in helping me find new ideas.

Masthead Options: I didn’t realize how conceptual masthead options are meant to be. It was fun to explore the different ways of “marrying” two typfaces and showing the ways that the two words wedding and belle can go together. I started out with the typeface called mission script. I like that typeface a lot but I don’t know if it is elegant enough for what I’m trying to say. The next typeface I worked with is called Abraham Lincoln, I thought it was a more elegant option for the type paring. I also tryed playing around with the belle being the most important part of the masthead because that is what I want my focus to be on.

System #1: For my first concept I want the system to portray the idea that the Belle is wrapped in all of the details of her wedding. The wedding is all about her and she is the main focal point. I’ve been working on a mast head that can also show this concept, it has the word belle wrapped inside the word wedding. I think it needs some more tweeking but I feel like its going in the right track. For the layot of these pages I’m going to have a major focal point and that will also represent the word belle.Another element I want to include in this system is the use of a ribbon. The ribbon will represent the bride being wrapped in her wedding. I’m really excited for this concept but I hope people will understand it!

System #2: For my second system I’m working on the concept of “something old, someting new, something borrowed, something blue. With that I want to use vintage frames, modern typefaces, the blue color, I think it can be a really fun system to work on and i think people will understand because it is such a common saying for weddings. I like the modern typeface of bodoni and have it mixed with a cursive typeface to incorporate the old and the new.

System #3: For my third concept I’m trying to portray two different styles and marry them together by creating a modern and feminine look design after a wedding planner’s bood that she uses to keep everything organized. I want to keep that style in my magazine by having different pullouts and places where the bride can write down her thoughts and her wishlist. I’m engaged right now i I feel like I’m designing something that I wish was in the stores right now! Different things that I would include in my magazine are: agenda, budget, calender, music, flowers, guest list, contacts, and food plans. For the fonts I willl include a cursive and a sans serif font together.

Layouts: With these grids and layouts I drew up I tried to incorporate everything that I’ve been learning this semester, I want to use a 7 or 9 column grid. I’m trying to keep in mind the principels of design and make sure to have a focal point. I’m also trying to remember to keep the system consistant throughout the design of my work. I’m happy that I took the time to draw these out because I think that it saved me a lot of time in the long run.

Wedding BelleThis will be the heading fontT h i s w i l l b e t h e b od y f o n t

This will be the heading fontT h i s w i l l b e t h e b o d y f o n t

This will be the heading fontThis will be the body font

Wedding BelleThis will be the heading fontThis will be the body font

Wedding BelleThis will be the body font

Type Paring Options

Iphone Exploration: I was very nervous to complete an iphone app version of my magazine article because I have never done it before. It was new to me to work on such a small space and to think though how it would be to use a magazine on an iphone. It wasn’t as hard as I thought and I actually had a lot of fun re-organizing my layouts to make all of the content fit. It helped me simplify my ideas and to use a very clean layout. I’m excited to have learned this new skill.

Iphone Exploration: Ithought I knew a lot about technology but I had no idea the amount of magazine resources there are avalible for iphone and ipad devices. It was very interesting to me to see how designers handled the information. A lot went the very technical side of design and didn’t play around with the area that they had. They know that it needs to be user friendly and that it has to be beautiful at the same time. I think that print should be carried over to web design better. Althought there is less room to work with i found it easy to include all of my information. I’m excited that we accomplished this part of the assignment because I learned a lot about navigating around and making the iphone user friendly for iphone design.-