A blog for Summer 2015 NEiA Publication Design class with instructor, Coni Porter. The purpose is to offer faculty and peer feedback in a timely manner, allowing and encouraging the students to progress in a focused and productive way. As the semester ends, this class has produced 117 posts, 263 comments, and been viewed by over 5,000 internet readers. See the last group of postings below to view final student work: sample pages for the (fictional) Habitat Magazine: The Future of Food.
Chelsey – I’m pretty sure I remember, last night, giving you feedback for your written Design Brief. (I’ll be sending those PDFs back to everyone this morning) In it, you wrote that you were targeting young college-aged women. I questioned your image choice. Now, I find myself thinking that these images are, again, not of that audience… but of slightly older women who are living in the country with or without a young family, but who are living close to the land, growing gardens, planting seeds, and cooking in a country kitchen. Am I right? This 25-35 year old female audience makes way more sense for your design sensibilities in this project so far. So – with that new audience in mind, I’ll give some feedback.
Layout #1 – There is your audience. Good. She is also showing us, proudly, something she has clearly grown herself. Again, a good audience for this magazine’s content I think. The masthead design needs to include both words “Habitat Magazine” and the date. You could even include a vol. #, since this audience might want to hold onto these magazines as part of their home library. The theme is also missing: The Future of Food. That can sit away from the masthead – but should not challenge its spot at the top of the page’s visual hierarchy. The font you have chosen for the masthead is not particularly contemporary, but has a homey, comfortable feel (its origins actually date back to Victorian England of the late 1800s). It’s a display font, and should not be used for small type blocks… like dates. In fact, I think you should not use that font for anything else, and pair it with a sans serif to help bring the typography into the 21st century. It is important that this cover represent the NEW information inside the magazine, and not a project like The Old Farmer’s Almanac… which recycles really old anecdotal material that people read for amusement. This magazine is about a new approach to healthy living, more connected to the ecology that surrounds us. Right?
So, get all the typographic elements into the composition without covering up any important parts of the photo. Next – color seems a bit washed out. This will compete with other magazines, and so it needs to appear fresh, bright, and cheery I would think.
Be careful not to come too close to the page edges with your type… play it safe and bring the masthead, and of course the image, down a tad.
Layout #2 – I see the hands of your target audience… but I’m not sure what we are looking at through the frame. What IS that frame showing us? Not sure. The farmhouse in the background is probably a good representation of where some of your (now older) audience might live. It shows us the home of farmers interested in learning about the new ways that science and ecology are coming together to help them farm in better ways. But again, the hand-held frame is the focal point… and it isn’t offering enough. Unless you composite in some other elements, this image isn’t strong enough for a cover. (Maybe it would work really well for a feature, and you could put the title inside the frame?) The font on this layout isn’t contemporary, nor does it express anything other than art deco (a time in typographic history when everyone was fascinated by man-made trains, ships, and planes). So… it doesn’t make much sense.
Layout #3 has even more issues, so I’ll stop here.
Please use expressive typography in ways that serve, and support, the content as well as the audience. I’m wondering if you are drawn to these fonts because you enjoy them. That’s fine, and when you design your own brand you can experiment with them. But this project is about reaching your audience and representing the intention of the magazine. I encourage you to read, or read again, the manuscript to help you gain a deeper understanding of the subject. Then clarify your audience – by either changing it to match your images/layout style OR rework your layouts, typography, and images. Meanwhile… I vote for Layout #1!
Cover 1 - I think this design shows the most promise. I like the typography for “Habitat,” but you are missing the remainder of the magazine title, the word, “Magazine.” The cover also needs more content, such as feature titles.
Cover 2 - This cover would be a great ad for the magazine going digital. Like Cover one, you’ll need to consider the full magazine name and feature titles. I would suggest though focusing on cover one. If you should decide to focus on cover two, consider adjusting the kerning of the title.
Cover 3 - This cover appears to be more of a cooking cover for a magazine. One of my covers also appeared to focus more on the kitchen, or cooking, aspect. The cover is also missing the same elements as the other two.
Chelsey – I’m pretty sure I remember, last night, giving you feedback for your written Design Brief. (I’ll be sending those PDFs back to everyone this morning) In it, you wrote that you were targeting young college-aged women. I questioned your image choice. Now, I find myself thinking that these images are, again, not of that audience… but of slightly older women who are living in the country with or without a young family, but who are living close to the land, growing gardens, planting seeds, and cooking in a country kitchen. Am I right? This 25-35 year old female audience makes way more sense for your design sensibilities in this project so far. So – with that new audience in mind, I’ll give some feedback.
ReplyDeleteLayout #1 – There is your audience. Good. She is also showing us, proudly, something she has clearly grown herself. Again, a good audience for this magazine’s content I think. The masthead design needs to include both words “Habitat Magazine” and the date. You could even include a vol. #, since this audience might want to hold onto these magazines as part of their home library. The theme is also missing: The Future of Food. That can sit away from the masthead – but should not challenge its spot at the top of the page’s visual hierarchy. The font you have chosen for the masthead is not particularly contemporary, but has a homey, comfortable feel (its origins actually date back to Victorian England of the late 1800s). It’s a display font, and should not be used for small type blocks… like dates. In fact, I think you should not use that font for anything else, and pair it with a sans serif to help bring the typography into the 21st century. It is important that this cover represent the NEW information inside the magazine, and not a project like The Old Farmer’s Almanac… which recycles really old anecdotal material that people read for amusement. This magazine is about a new approach to healthy living, more connected to the ecology that surrounds us. Right?
So, get all the typographic elements into the composition without covering up any important parts of the photo. Next – color seems a bit washed out. This will compete with other magazines, and so it needs to appear fresh, bright, and cheery I would think.
Be careful not to come too close to the page edges with your type… play it safe and bring the masthead, and of course the image, down a tad.
Layout #2 – I see the hands of your target audience… but I’m not sure what we are looking at through the frame. What IS that frame showing us? Not sure. The farmhouse in the background is probably a good representation of where some of your (now older) audience might live. It shows us the home of farmers interested in learning about the new ways that science and ecology are coming together to help them farm in better ways. But again, the hand-held frame is the focal point… and it isn’t offering enough. Unless you composite in some other elements, this image isn’t strong enough for a cover. (Maybe it would work really well for a feature, and you could put the title inside the frame?) The font on this layout isn’t contemporary, nor does it express anything other than art deco (a time in typographic history when everyone was fascinated by man-made trains, ships, and planes). So… it doesn’t make much sense.
Layout #3 has even more issues, so I’ll stop here.
Please use expressive typography in ways that serve, and support, the content as well as the audience. I’m wondering if you are drawn to these fonts because you enjoy them. That’s fine, and when you design your own brand you can experiment with them. But this project is about reaching your audience and representing the intention of the magazine. I encourage you to read, or read again, the manuscript to help you gain a deeper understanding of the subject. Then clarify your audience – by either changing it to match your images/layout style OR rework your layouts, typography, and images. Meanwhile… I vote for Layout #1!
Cover 1 - I think this design shows the most promise. I like the typography for “Habitat,” but you are missing the remainder of the magazine title, the word, “Magazine.” The cover also needs more content, such as feature titles.
ReplyDeleteCover 2 - This cover would be a great ad for the magazine going digital. Like Cover one, you’ll need to consider the full magazine name and feature titles. I would suggest though focusing on cover one. If you should decide to focus on cover two, consider adjusting the kerning of the title.
Cover 3 - This cover appears to be more of a cooking cover for a magazine. One of my covers also appeared to focus more on the kitchen, or cooking, aspect. The cover is also missing the same elements as the other two.