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.
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Rob's Exercise 2
Hello Bloggers,
I tried to create some new ideas, but also reworked an existing idea from last weeks exercise into spread 2. Just a reminder my audience is 25-30 professionals.
I have to say I absolutely love the 2nd and 3rd spreads A LOT! They look very modern and eye catching! My only thing is for the second one, I think that you should make "Revolution" a bit darker, it was a little bit hard to read? I also like the use of the quote on the right; but maybe play around with using all caps? Like you did in the title? For the third one, try using text wrap around the cucumbers? It could be interesting :) just a thought. Other than that love that one too.
For the first one, I really appreciate the use of the drop cap. Very clever! To be be completely honest, I don't really like the "Revolution" here with the "-" I don't know, it just feels weird to me. And I also feel there might be too much white space? Try making the image a little bigger.
Thanks Naidin for your honest critics. I agree with you on the 3rd spread doing a text wrap and actually had that idea but didn't want to take the time photoshopping a low res photo..
And will try different text styles for the pull quote on spread 2 as well.
Rob – Clean, subtle shapes with green in predominance. The Layouts hold promise, but first I want to suggest that you read this article carefully again. This isn’t about bountiful veggies tumbling out of baskets – it’s really about farming practices. Be careful that the pages don’t look like they could be in a cooking magazine. Can you combine some of these beautiful photos with others that might speak more clearly to the subject matter. So we “see” the writer’s words come to life. Currently, the photos are only for decoration (and they ARE pretty) – but they can be so much more.
Layout #1 – you don’t need the hyphenations in the title – we’ll figure out the word I think – and they are really distracting. Since the large S is not functional but rather decorative, I’m not sure it has found its place yet. It seems to be hiding behind the words… and I wonder why? Bottom right could hold an additional photo that helps portray what this article is really about.
Layout #2 – I find the abstract quality of your images very engaging, and think this might be your strongest design because of it. I see interesting shapes fitting together which makes me think about the ecological systems that the writer is talking about that NEED to fit together. What other images could be combined here (why not use lower right for more photos?) to help that quote (We need a farming…) come alive? The weakness in this layout is in the heading treatment. I’m not sure the busy heading font actually works with your shapes. It might have been the inspiration for them, but it no longer works with them – and as others have pointed out, it’s quite weak on the page.
Layout #3 – This is also a strong design with bold images, but it suffers from the same issue as #1, the photos don’t support and further the subject matter of the article (unless I’ve forgotten that the cucumber plant is talked about in the article). Taking the time to read the article again will, I’m sure, give you ideas on how to move forward with this article. I’m not suggesting you remove all the strong, beautiful photos… I AM suggesting that you find additional imagery that can be combined on the page to be more supportive of the words.
Rob, I would have to say layout #2 grabs my attention the most. The choice of typeface is very engaging and the dynamic cropping of the images makes the layout very modern. My only critique for this layout would be to make the lines that crop the image uniform in width to make it a bit more structured.
For layout #3, I think your negative space on the second page is very successful with the cucumbers invading the third column ever so slightly. I think maybe a pull quote would add enough to bump this up to my favorite layout. Or maybe just a block of color somewhere to break up the white space. Great job overall!
Hello Rob,
ReplyDeleteI have to say I absolutely love the 2nd and 3rd spreads A LOT! They look very modern and eye catching! My only thing is for the second one, I think that you should make "Revolution" a bit darker, it was a little bit hard to read? I also like the use of the quote on the right; but maybe play around with using all caps? Like you did in the title? For the third one, try using text wrap around the cucumbers? It could be interesting :) just a thought. Other than that love that one too.
For the first one, I really appreciate the use of the drop cap. Very clever! To be be completely honest, I don't really like the "Revolution" here with the "-" I don't know, it just feels weird to me. And I also feel there might be too much white space? Try making the image a little bigger.
Overall great work!
Thanks Naidin for your honest critics. I agree with you on the 3rd spread doing a text wrap and actually had that idea but didn't want to take the time photoshopping a low res photo..
DeleteAnd will try different text styles for the pull quote on spread 2 as well.
Thanks for the feedback
Rob – Clean, subtle shapes with green in predominance. The Layouts hold promise, but first I want to suggest that you read this article carefully again. This isn’t about bountiful veggies tumbling out of baskets – it’s really about farming practices. Be careful that the pages don’t look like they could be in a cooking magazine. Can you combine some of these beautiful photos with others that might speak more clearly to the subject matter. So we “see” the writer’s words come to life. Currently, the photos are only for decoration (and they ARE pretty) – but they can be so much more.
ReplyDeleteLayout #1 – you don’t need the hyphenations in the title – we’ll figure out the word I think – and they are really distracting. Since the large S is not functional but rather decorative, I’m not sure it has found its place yet. It seems to be hiding behind the words… and I wonder why? Bottom right could hold an additional photo that helps portray what this article is really about.
Layout #2 – I find the abstract quality of your images very engaging, and think this might be your strongest design because of it. I see interesting shapes fitting together which makes me think about the ecological systems that the writer is talking about that NEED to fit together. What other images could be combined here (why not use lower right for more photos?) to help that quote (We need a farming…) come alive? The weakness in this layout is in the heading treatment. I’m not sure the busy heading font actually works with your shapes. It might have been the inspiration for them, but it no longer works with them – and as others have pointed out, it’s quite weak on the page.
Layout #3 – This is also a strong design with bold images, but it suffers from the same issue as #1, the photos don’t support and further the subject matter of the article (unless I’ve forgotten that the cucumber plant is talked about in the article). Taking the time to read the article again will, I’m sure, give you ideas on how to move forward with this article. I’m not suggesting you remove all the strong, beautiful photos… I AM suggesting that you find additional imagery that can be combined on the page to be more supportive of the words.
Rob, I would have to say layout #2 grabs my attention the most. The choice of typeface is very engaging and the dynamic cropping of the images makes the layout very modern. My only critique for this layout would be to make the lines that crop the image uniform in width to make it a bit more structured.
ReplyDeleteFor layout #3, I think your negative space on the second page is very successful with the cucumbers invading the third column ever so slightly. I think maybe a pull quote would add enough to bump this up to my favorite layout. Or maybe just a block of color somewhere to break up the white space. Great job overall!