So for my approach for this exercise I decided to design something that would instantly get the attention span of a high school student. Visual hierarchy is key with them, since if it doesn't instantly grab their attention, they will lose interest fast and quit reading quickly. So, I tried making big, bold titles that reel you in. The fist and last one I decided in breaking the page to give it an interesting look.
Carrisa – I’m happy that you’re experimenting with different approaches to the same article but I think you have constrained yourself to a few fonts that are repeated in all. Why aren’t you experimenting with that aspect of the design? That’s what this stage is for, and your initial choices may not be the best. Also, what I notice right away is that we don’t see your audience anywhere? Where are these young people? The beauty of typography is often lost on this audience. Instead colorful images showing the audience engaged with the subject is important. I think you need to look at what this age group is reading – do some research and see what publishers think attracts them. There are plenty of images that include teenagers and food on ThinkStock – so I encourage you to find them and use them in these layouts. Some thoughts:
ReplyDeleteLayout #1 – There is an opportunity to use a full page photo on the left-hand page behind your type. You should do it – read the article closely and find just the right photo that allows room for the type AND helps increase our understanding of the subject. You may need to move the heading a bit – which should not be a problem, it’s so big that there is every reason to think it could be reduced without losing impact. The tilt of the word “Revolution” is interesting, but the rest of the title ignores this. And because the tilt isn’t too dramatic, we wonder if there is a mistake made in the headline position. So, tilt that word even more, and then design the other words to support it (it is clearly the focal point, as it should be). The body copy actually looks too small, and you don’t need all the space between paragraphs do you at the bottom of the first column on pg 13? Ah – I see that there is no space between paragraphs at top of 2nd column… which I think makes sense although you do need an indent to show where paragraphs begin – so please add indents. The “continued” text is way way way too big. It isn’t at all important, and in fact should be dropped. Since the article will continue on the next page, you don’t need a continued line. It’s needed only when a “jump” is involved.
Layout #2 – here I really need to question the curly cue font in the heading. It is old-fashioned and often used for very young girls. If you are talking “Revolution” than some contemporary, young, aggressive, expressive font should be found. Since the fist image is pretty ubiquitous (look it up), how else can you use this image? Could you use the internal shapes of that fist to hold parts of an image? Could there be an image behind it? Creativity needed here. The right –hand page is simply too text heavy. You are talking to high school students… this looks like a government report (you aren’t the first person I’ve said that to in this blog!). Please design this page with multiple elements, chunking the text with subheads if needed (you can add them if you need them), and creating a more interesting layout.
Layout #3 – New approach to heading is needed, we’ve seen this in Layout #1 and here it doesn’t even activate the whole area you’ve set up for it. Be careful of the value contrast between typography and background – black on green lacks contrast. The angled and cropped image is a great idea… keep thinking about this. Could it continue up across the green area? Are there other angled shapes that could work with this one and hold other images? Keep thinking about this. Where will they travel, how will they come together, and what do you want to do with the area where they come together. It will be the focal point of the page… use it wisely. 4 columns might be too many with this angled approach – I wonder if moving this to 3 or even 2 columns would be better. If there is a lot happening on the page (and there needs to be for this audience) then think about how you are going get us to start reading at the beginning. Drop cap? Placing an image near beginning of first paragraph? Enlarged intro paragraph to help engage us? Lots of possibilities, you need to start being a bit crazy, more inventive, and think like a teenager!
Hey Carissa, I didn't read Coni's comments and now that I have, some of them are pretty similar, so I apologize for the repetition.
ReplyDeleteLayout 1 the by-line seems a little out of place because of the color and size. My eye doesn't really know where to look in this layout. it keeps bouncing around. i feel like each time i look my eye is drawn to something different (the word green because of the color, the word revolution because of the different typeface and the slant, the by line because of the color or the continued on because of the color and size as well. I do like the beginning of the headline (the Next Green). I think that if you rotated Revolution so that it ran parallel to the other text and/or changed the text to the same typeface I would like it better. I like the contrast between the size of the headline and the body copy. the legibility of the body copy is my only concern. You could also increase the size slightly and I think it would get rid of the widows and also keep the top two chunks the same height as "green". I would also suggest taking out the extra returns between paragraphs. I think with a little work this layout can be really successful.
Layout 2- I understand the image as a sign of a revolution but i don't think the type face suggests that. Maybe change the type for revolution to what you used in the first layout for "the next green". There are some really good destroyed and agressive types on dafont.com too. I think it would add some drama to the piece. again I would suggest taking out the extra returns and to me it would make more sense to include copy all the way down to the bottom of the second column if it is going to be continued on another page. It seems like if there is white spaced and the article hasn't ended, that the space should be filled. I really like the balance of the left being heavy on color and image and the right being heavy on text, though I may suggest changing it to black and increase the leading slightly. Although it is subtle, I really enjoy the light green rule at the bottom of the page.
Layout 3 This is my favorite. I think the image is the most appropriate for the article and I like its atypical treatment. If i had to make suggestions, it would be to reverse the type faces in the headline (as i suggested for layout two), balance the white space between the text and the green bar and the bottom of the page and take out the extra returns.
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