Page Layouts- Design Decisions

Type Decisions, what works best

A sans-serif font called Lovelo, I like this font because it is clean and crisp, I like the use of the strait lines. 

This is Lovelo but a different version of Lovelo called inline, again I like this font as it is more decorative however I feel that it might not be a good title font. The & sign is in helvetica as lovelo doesn't have many glyphs. 

This is another option I am thinking of going for as I have seen it in such publications as Printed Pages, cooper black is a nice font, above I think I would use it in lower case rather than upper case. 

I also need to decide what to use for sub headings and body copy. Above is cooper black and a sans- serif font, usually serif fonts are used in body copy so below I have looked at serif fonts as well, however I always seem to prefer sans-serif.  

Lovelo with a serif font. 

I feel the fonts need to be consistant through out the page layouts 

I am going to go for lovelo and helvetica neu, two san-sefif fonts that I think work well and reflect each other well. 

Modular or column grids

The two grids that I am thinking of working with is the modular and column grids. 

Extremely complex projects require a degree of control beyond what a column grid will provide, and in this situation, a modular grid is essentially a column grid with a large number of horizontal flow lines to sub divide the columns into rows, creating a matrix of cells called modules. Each module defines a small chunk of informational space. Grouped together, these modules define areas called spatial zones to which specific roles may be assigned. The degree of control within the grid depends on the size of the modules. Smaller modules provide more flexibility and greater precision, but too many subdivisions can become confusing or redundant. 

Information that is discontinuous benefits from being organised into an arrangement of vertical columns. because the columns can be dependant on each other for the running text, independent for small blocks of text or crossed over to make wider columns, the column grid is very flexible and can be used to separate different kinds of information. For example, some columns may be reserved for running text and large images, while captions may be played in an adjacent column; this arrangement clearly separates the captions from the primary material, but allows the designer to create a direct relationship between the captions and the primary materials. 

This is the grid I have decided to go with, this basic grid modular grid will fit for most of my double page spreads this way it will keep them consistant. 

Looking back and improving experiments

I have decided to leave this double page spread as it is because I got good verbal feedback from it in the crit, the text isn't in grid format and more of a list style but that is what I wanted to go for as personally I think I would find it easier to understand. 

Here I have put the text in three columns as there is a lot to fit on the page, I like the layout of these pages, however the main most interesting pieces of information are in the boxes and I feel they should be emphasised more, I might do this by making the font larger instead.

Here I have tried the layout with two columns of text, I much prefer three, I have also made the font bigger on the main quote I want people to focus on first, I have put this in pink as it will work well in hyriaki, I want people to read this after they have read the title and then the main body of text.

Here is the layout after experimenting, I much prefer the quotes without the boxes and with lines instead it makes it look more slick. I have also made the font larger, but stuck to the three columns as I think it suits the spread better and the content fits better with three columns. 

Here I have experimented with putting the text in 2 and three columns, personally I think it looks a lot better in two columns, I don't think I should mix the amount of columns on the same double page spread. 

I much prefer the two columns now, it keeps it much more consistant.  

One double page spread I've been having particular issues with is the colour one, I have realised my content is not very good and the images online for how our eye see's colour are not very good, above is an image that I tried to compose myself however I don't like it, I think it looks too amateur and childlike, so I have decided to change this page and its content to pantone, as I feel I will have a lot more to write about this and the images will be a lot better. 

Here are just some quick thumbnail sketches I have done, I want to keep this page very minimal, I think the image of the pantone will take up one whole page to make it eye catching, and then a text based page on the other side. 

Here is my new content, I used a modular grid and again experimented with the text boxes and moving them into different columns as bodies of text seems to be my biggest issue so far with these layouts. 

I've decided to go with the three columns and align it all to the right to balance out the text on the top, I think this works well and is a massive improvement from my original 'how your eye see's colour' page. 

Here is the content I had to work with for the atomical features of type, agin a vey simple page with the use of only one image and a list of all the different components. 

A problem that I came across when type setting my content is that it all kept moving where I didn't want it too, as you can see at the top on the right hand side the words 'stoke weight' look out of place. I tried several things with the type to fix this issue. I didn't want to go for a smaller point size as the point size should be consistant through out the double page spreads. In the end to fix this issue I deleted a line of content, but still made sure it made sense when reading it. 

This is the final page, again very minimal, some feedback I got from my crit is that I should have more white space on my spreads because sometimes less is more. I completely agree. The only issue with this page is the type hierarchy, this is something that I struggled with on this page spread as I wanted the image to be large however the image is type and people are going to read that first rather than the actual title of what it is about. As the double page spread is now I read the image first and then the quote and then the title. 

Now I feel it works much better as the hierarchy works better, as the title is at the top of the page that is what I read first and then my eye moved down towards the quote and then the image. 

Thumbnails for the serif and sans serif page, there is a lot of information to fit on this double page spread and I don't want it to feel overcrowded.

I decided to spilt my page up into thirds as this would be the easiest way to fit everything on and make it look organised without overcrowding the page. 

Deciding which way to set the type was difficult. The image was not big enough, at first I was going to set all of the type to the right however I thought this left too much of a blank space between the image an the text and people may find this confusing. I tried it the the left but it I still didn't like this, so I ended up moving the image closer to the middle so I could type set it the the right. 

This is the final layout, I haven't used colour as I want people to focus on the type. 

I used my thumbnails to help me organise the helvetica page. 

This is the helvetica page, including the history and the many variations of helvetica that you can get. I used a simple modular grid on this double page spread. I also decided to keep the body copy to two columns as I felt there wasn't enough body copy for three. 

I used the book thinking with type for my content for the next double page spread, I found this book very useful. 

I didn't initially plan to have a page on type families as I thought the content would spread out onto more pages than it did. I made some thumbnails and decided on some more content to put in. I wanted to focus on type families and scale of type as I think these are two simple yet important things that I have learnt within this module. 

I decided to go with black and red as I wanted the type to stand out more and for people to notice the family of type. I set the type to the right of the page. 

This is the final double page spread, I kept the other page very basic as I thought there was a lot of body copy on the opposite side so I didn't want to over complicate it and make the page look too heavy. 

Again I didn't plan to do this page but I didn't have as much content to spread across the pages as I thought. I got the content from the book 'the art of colour' by Johannes Itten. With this spread I know there is a lot of colourful imagery and I don't want to over power the page so I want to keep the layout simple. 

Here are just a couple of variations of how I was going to lay this page out. 

This is the page layout complete, I thin the text wrap works partially well on the left hand page, there is a lot of body copy on these two pages, it was hard to not make it too overpowering. I used three columns on both pages to keep it consistant, the type reads downwards on the colour circle page. 

The final page that needs altering is the contents, I have decided to do this last as a lot of my content has changed. 

This is it before I made the alterations, I need to make the intro longer as it doesn't really explain much as it is

I found the contents difficult to do as I wasn't sure where to put everything 

I looked into some other contents pages to gain some inspiration

Here is the new contents, I took inspiration from a couple of books that I looked into and thought that the title and the contents should be on different pages. Also I have put a short introduction just to explain what the page layouts are. 

Structure of each page

Here I have print screened each page to show the stucture of each page, the use of column and modular grids.

I have enjoyed doing these page layouts and I feel I have learnt a lot. I took a lot longer than I thought to get them to a stage that I was happy with them, and I didn't realise how hard it is to make them look good. I now have more appreciation for grids and page layouts, I think I can recognise grids more on everyday magazines and books, I notice layout more. 

References for research 

http://www.colormatters.com/color-and-vision/how-the-eye-sees-color

http://mgtek.com.au/archives/69

http://graphicdesign.spokanefalls.edu/tutorials/process/type_basics/history.htm

http://www.scribe.com.au/tip-w017.html

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/01/the-simplicity-of-helvetica/

Ellen Lupton (2010). Thinking with Type . 2nd ed. New York : Princeton Architectural Press. 48,54.

Johannes Itten (1973). The Art of Color. Germany: Otto Major Verlang Ravensberg . 36-104.