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.
I like what you’ve done with your cover page, from the feedback from class last week. The typeface looks much better at this weight than before and looks much better spaced out. Did you try making the word “Magazine” the same blue and the cutlines white? Could work, maybe. I think what your going for the word “magazine” going behind the image is creative but the white of the word and the image being white, it’s lost, so play with adjusting the words color. There’s definitely an improvement with the cutlines w/o the bounding boxes but maybe still a few tweaks needed. Maybe try making them white, but all in all this cover is coming along really well!
The department article works awesomely well as well. The point size is MUCH better! One thing I would say is maybe getting rid of some of the return spaces, so there isn’t so many. I like the department heading you created as well; it’s clean and precise which will speak to your target audience.
Michael – it’s just great to see this evolve. Cover: Is all the type on this cover kerned to the extreme extent? I wonder if both the masthead and the cutlines would benefit from a bit looser kerning. The cutline “The New Face of Hunger” should be restacked, so the word “of” moves down with “Hunger.” This will make a better shape, and eliminate the short last line there. After a bit looser kerning, you will need to decide if those cutlines are big enough, and readable enough against the background. If not… what will you do?
Department: Do you need the word “Department” in upper right? If you want 2 words, think about Sustainable Thinking, or something like that. Make a title for this department that can be successful without the word “Department” in it. Great image. Let’s make sure there is enough contrast behind the body type to create an inviting “read.” It might be the low res of the jpeg, but this type looks like it is falling apart too much.
Feature: Hmmm, I see that you are using the words “Feature Articles” here in top gray shape. Why? I guess, now, I’m wondering if this is part of some concept I’m missing. Sometimes it’s OK to state the obvious. Is that your intention? In which case, your earlier use of “Department” might have been intentional and not an oversight, like I had assumed. Make sure, what ever you do, that it DOES look intentional (which means the “s” on “Articles” must go). Layout: I find it interesting that you are using 2 different grids on these 2 pages. But… hey, even Time magazine is starting to do things like this. However, that very thin middle column on pg 1 should not hold any type that is actually inside the thread flow. The line width is too narrow to hold body copy. Notice that Times uses things like column quotes in this area (styled quite small) – not body copy. So… use that middle area for something else… and we’ll probably think it is clever, avant-garde, and contemporary. Far right… make sure, again, that the body copy can stand up to the background color. Use bold font and/or duplicate the text frame with Paste in Place to strengthen the type.
I agree with Izzy - too much space between paragraphs can pull the eye horizontally rather than vertically through the page. Think about reducing that amount of space.
Michael-
ReplyDeleteI like what you’ve done with your cover page, from the feedback from class last week. The typeface looks much better at this weight than before and looks much better spaced out. Did you try making the word “Magazine” the same blue and the cutlines white? Could work, maybe. I think what your going for the word “magazine” going behind the image is creative but the white of the word and the image being white, it’s lost, so play with adjusting the words color. There’s definitely an improvement with the cutlines w/o the bounding boxes but maybe still a few tweaks needed. Maybe try making them white, but all in all this cover is coming along really well!
The department article works awesomely well as well. The point size is MUCH better! One thing I would say is maybe getting rid of some of the return spaces, so there isn’t so many. I like the department heading you created as well; it’s clean and precise which will speak to your target audience.
Great WORK!
Michael – it’s just great to see this evolve. Cover: Is all the type on this cover kerned to the extreme extent? I wonder if both the masthead and the cutlines would benefit from a bit looser kerning. The cutline “The New Face of Hunger” should be restacked, so the word “of” moves down with “Hunger.” This will make a better shape, and eliminate the short last line there. After a bit looser kerning, you will need to decide if those cutlines are big enough, and readable enough against the background. If not… what will you do?
ReplyDeleteDepartment: Do you need the word “Department” in upper right? If you want 2 words, think about Sustainable Thinking, or something like that. Make a title for this department that can be successful without the word “Department” in it. Great image. Let’s make sure there is enough contrast behind the body type to create an inviting “read.” It might be the low res of the jpeg, but this type looks like it is falling apart too much.
Feature: Hmmm, I see that you are using the words “Feature Articles” here in top gray shape. Why? I guess, now, I’m wondering if this is part of some concept I’m missing. Sometimes it’s OK to state the obvious. Is that your intention? In which case, your earlier use of “Department” might have been intentional and not an oversight, like I had assumed. Make sure, what ever you do, that it DOES look intentional (which means the “s” on “Articles” must go). Layout: I find it interesting that you are using 2 different grids on these 2 pages. But… hey, even Time magazine is starting to do things like this. However, that very thin middle column on pg 1 should not hold any type that is actually inside the thread flow. The line width is too narrow to hold body copy. Notice that Times uses things like column quotes in this area (styled quite small) – not body copy. So… use that middle area for something else… and we’ll probably think it is clever, avant-garde, and contemporary. Far right… make sure, again, that the body copy can stand up to the background color. Use bold font and/or duplicate the text frame with Paste in Place to strengthen the type.
I agree with Izzy - too much space between paragraphs can pull the eye horizontally rather than vertically through the page. Think about reducing that amount of space.