Magazine Pages

These are my magazine pages I created in Graphics through Indesign.

Overall I'm pleased with my magazine pages as I feel I have completed the brief of the task. I feel my magazine does relate and have similarities to other fashion magazines you'd find in the shelves of most shops like Elle, Cosmopolitian, Vogue ect. The layout of my magazine played a large part as I felt this was the most important part; the layout essentially is everything as its visually what makes a magazine a magazine. The text is obviously also important but to understands its actually a magazine and of a specific genre, getting the layout right it key.

Use Of Colour

Colour was very important with my magazine as the genre I was going for (Fashion) often use colour a lot to excite the reader, show the mood of the article ect. The colour theme I went for was black, white and pink as they all are colours often seen in fashion magazines and also show femininty. I decided to make the background of my pages pastel pink as I felt it added a summery look to the pages and also complimented the black and white. I also added what looked like a mascara line down the side of 'the mac review' page as I wanted it to connect with the article being about make up. I often added a black text box with white writing onto to create a mordern and fashionable look. The colours on my page layouts are very bold and will grab the attention of my audience which I wanted.

Use Of Text

Text also played a very important part in my magazine pages as I wanted to use text which was similar to some you'd find in fashion magazines. Often I'd go onto popular website 'Dafont' to find text to use as headlines on my magazine. The process of creating the main headlines and putting them onto the pages were simple; after I found the text I wanted I copied onto a different page of Indesign, I then traced around it and removed all the white background so it would just be the outline and then paste it where I want it. Sometimes I kept the white background ('The Fashion Enthusiast' and 'The Contents' page) as I felt it added boldness to the pages. Most of the text I used on the articles were just a simple Arial as although I wanted it to look interested I still wanted the reader to be able to read it.

Hierachy of Information

The way I have layed out my images and texts makes the images the most eye catching which I wanted.

Tool and techniques used

The tools and techniques I used when creating my magazine pages were from multiple different softwares. I used photoshop alot to edit my photos which were used as I wanted them to look more glossy and professional. I used websites like Dafont to creates good fonts for articles and headlines. I also used Indesign to them trace and copy/paste the fonts I created off Dafont. But the most used software was Indesign as that was what I actually created my page layouts on. I changed background colours, added different coloured boxes to paste text over, placed images and texts in postions on the layout. I also created my front cover on Indesign, where I cropped the main image into the correct positon (which I found difficult). Also pasted barcodes, headlines, the issue and price all on the front cover.

What is most successful about your design or designs?

What I feel is most successful about my design is the similarites it has to fashion magazines around at the moment. I like how I tried to create it as professional as I can, I also like the layout I used with the pink background and white text over black box look, as I feel it makes it stand out more and look more mordern. If I could alter anything about my page layout I would try and incorporate more colours as I although I like the black/white/pink colour theme on some of the pages it could look more interesting if I added a different main colour like grey or another pastel colour.

Bookmark Design

The book I was assigned to create a bookmark for was The Alchemist, which is a 1988 novel by Paul Coelho. The synopsis I wrote about the book is: The Alchemist follows the journey of an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago. Santiago starts believing a recurring dream to become a prophetic and decides to travel to a gypsy in a close town to discover its significance. She informs him that there’s treasure in the Pyramids in Egypt. Early into his journey, he meets an old king, Melchizedek, who tells him to sell his sheep to travel to Egypt, and his Personal Legend: something which he always wanted to achieve in life. And that "When you want something, the entire universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." This is the core philosophy and meaning of the book. Throughout his journey he encounters multiple emotions; danger, love, disaster, opportunity, and learns a lot about himself and the world. During his travels, he meets a beautiful Arabian woman called Fatima who explains to him that if he follows his heart, he shall find what it is he seeks. Santiago then encounters a lone alchemist who tells about personal legends. He says that people only want to find the treasure of their personal legends but not the personal legend itself. He feels unsure about himself as he listens to the alchemist's teachings. The alchemist states "Those who don't understand their personal legends will fail to comprehend its teachings." It also states that treasure is more worthy than gold.   

I created my bookmark on Indesign as I felt it was the best software system to create something as creative as a bookmark.

To start my bookmark I found an image off google which I felt related to my book; The Alchemist. I googled multiple different things which related to the novel including gold, pyramids, eyes, the desert; all things which play a large element in the book. Finally I found an image which I felt incorporated all of those elements. The image I found was very detailed which I liked; it had plently elements which related to The Alchemist, including a sun, an eye and a pyramid. I really like the image I found as its all over The Alchemist incorporated into one.













The actual editing I did on this bookmark consisted of changing parts of the book marks colour, adding black into section, changing the size of the image, transforming parts of the original image to create something which looks completely different.

These screengrabs show we editing the book mark on Indesign:

This is the final outcome of my bookmark:

Kate Moross Workshop

Kate Moross Workshop

One lesson we had the opportunity to create our own interpretation of Kate Moross' famous graphic work. We started by hand drawing a similar design to this Kate Moross piece and adding our favourite things into it which we like and are into. After we spent a few lesson detail drawing are outlines of the Kate Moross inspired piece when we thought they were best we could do we then scanned them onto Adobe Indesign. After successfuly scanning our designs in Indesign we then started adding colour into the outlines of shapes and text to make it vibrant and stand out. I used bright colours like pink, gold, and multi colour to create a unique and eyecatching piece. The aim of the task was to create something which has relation to Kate Moross' work, overall I feel I have achieved this as my piece of work does have similaritys to Kate Moross' and you can tell I have got inspiration from her. What I like about my design was that it relates to me, things on it are things I like which is good as I have achieved the task of creating something which is about me. If I was going to do this task again I would try and not make my design so spaced out, meaning I would try and make it look more busy and hectic. I feel with my design there is a lot of empty space which I would want to fill up, but when I first drew my design on paper I thought it looked neater if it wasn't to busy but after editing it on Indesign my thoughts changed. Overall I'm pleased with my graphic design and I feel my Indesign skills have improved since doing this task.

Example of Kate Moross' graphics designs





















This is the scanned version of my drawn Kate Moross design

This is the Indesign edited version of my Kate Moross design

Bookmark Evaluation

What is CMYK?

The CMYK colour model is a subtractive colour model used in colour printing. It also is used to describe the actual printing process. CMYK is a reference to four inks used in some colour printing; cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black).

 Why should your photoshop file be 300dpi when sending to print?

This is so the file is kept to the best of quality and it will look better and more defined.








Why send a PDF to the printers via email?

Using PDF files keeps the file small so that it will be easier and quicker to send. This doesn't however affect the quality of the file, it will still be just as good as how you created it on. Additionally, whether you design your file on illustrator, Indesign or Photoshop, saved as a PDF file it will be easiest to send on email.






Use of colour

I choose to stick with a black and white theme for my bookmark, purely because I wanted to create something which was sharp and strong. I thought if I used subtle colours it wouldnt of created the same effect as the shapes and lines would look less defined. I think my bookmark looks very bold as the black is a prominent element and adds boldness to the bookmark. The use of white also works well as it contrasts against the black creating a sharp feel. I used a limited colour palette because I felt if I used multiple colours like red, blue and yellow it would of created a child like bookmark. I think only using black and white makes the bookmark look more grown up which relates to the book as it isnt a childrens book. I do think my use of colour was successful as it makes the bookmark look more mature and professional. Also the white from the triangle and sun contrasts effortlessly with the black background.

Use of text

I didnt use much texts simply because I wanted the imagery to do most of the talking as thats visually more exciting. Rather then me using words like gold, sun and pyramids which are important parts of the novel I decided to find pictures instead as I feel that would attract more people and be more interesting. Due to my bookmark being slightly busy as I have multiple elements on it, I thought adding text would only make it look messy. However I did experiment with the use of text on my finished bookmark just to see if it would improve it but in the end I felt it only made it look to hectic. I did however use text on my blurb which was on the back of the bookmark, every bookmark needs a blurb but I didnt want mine being to long or distracting for the reader. I simply placed the 200+ word text in the centre of the bookmark, changed the font to white to create a contrast between the black background and finally changed the font from Arial to Big Calson Medium which was a tradional font but looked handwritten which relates to my novel The Alchemist. I do think my use of text relates to my theme as the summary of the novel tells the basic story of The Alchemist without giving anything away. Also me not adding any text on the front of the bookmark and using pictures instead relates to The Alchemist as its a visually exciting book. The imagerty is abstract as it looks handdrawn, it also is computer drawn but without it looking to computerised as it does still feel real; as if someones drawn it themselves.

Hierarchy of information

My eye is drawn to the pyramid with the eye in the middle and also the sun face as both elements are very unique and different. If it simply was a normal pyramid or a normal sun it would be so eye catching, its because its something strange and eccentric which catches attention.






Tools and techniques used

The tools and techniques I used were in Adobe Illustrator.











Sucessfulness 

What I think is most successful about my design is the use of different shapes and how I created one element, I think the use of colour contrast between the white and black also was successful. If I was going to do this design again I would potentially add more shapes into the design to make one big unique shape as I feel I just started creating one element and it could go further. I also would add maybe one more colour like gold to the sun or pyramid to make another contrast.