This post is part of my Visual Design module online portfolio
For our first visual design production day we had to design a fashion magazine. At the beginning of the day I decided on a house style which included a house font, house colours and house design. This then formed the basis of my design which I stuck to with each article on each page, this ensured my magazine was coherent in style and meant you would be able to tell that each article belonged in the magazine. However, as well as sticking to this house style I still added bits of fun in to the article by breaking the grid with shapes, images and pull out quotes.
Font
Headlines: Charlemagne std
Content: Constantia
Font size
Headlines: Fit to page using size and tracking until it fits.
Content: Size 11
Grid style layout
3 columns on article pages, the final column on the second page of each article in block colour.
Colour
C - 36
M - 87
Y - 93
K - 0
The front cover
I decided to use a traditional layout and style for the front cover of Trashion. I decided to do this so that it was easily noticeable as a fashion magazine. The colour of the heading is a burnt orange kind of colour, which I think works well with the vintage theme and style of the magazine. I used tracking to space out the main heading in order to make sure it filled the page. To make the magazine title more exciting I decided to exaggerate the ends of the 'S' which creates a lighting kind of style, again adding to the unique feel of the vintage style.
The contents page
For my contents page I decided to try and do something different and quirky to match the vintage style. Using the images of the Trashion models, I experimented with shape and included different parts of the images to create a montage on the contents page. I think this looks different and is unique, which is again similar to the vintage style of clothing. This also shows that breaking the grid and going against the house style is sometimes a good thing, it means the different pages are not all the same and therefore you aren't bored reading the magazine.
Articles
The first article is a 'How to' guide. Therefore I made sure each point was clearly stated so that the reader could easily follow each step in the guide. I added in the images so that the reader could follow this and make sure there designs fitted the instructions given. I made the numbered points a larger font size and played with the shape so that it made the design more fun and different. This first article is one of the examples of where I have broken the grid, many of the images and some text breaks the conventional house style and grid layout, this again just creates a more fun and individual style.
For this article I decided to use the image as the main focus point and featured it over all 3 grids on the first page. As there was a lot less text for this article than the others I was deciding between adding in other images to fill out the page and using this one as the main focus. I decided to use the main image and enlarge it over the 3 grids to firstly draw the reader in and secondly show what the article is about before the reader starts reading. I also used a pull out quote on this page in order to break the conventional grid layout and make the page more interesting.
This third article had more text than the previous one so I had to be careful with the image sizes and placing them as I didn't want the article to over flow on to the final column which was filled with colour. As this feature was an interview I decided the first image should be of the interviewee and the images should then follow this one to create a hierarchy to push forward that the focal point was the lady being interviewed. The block of colour in the third column is important as it is part of the house style and is something that ties every page together, this is why I didn't want the article text to feature in the third column.
The typography I used for the main body text was 'Constantia' this text has excellent readability and therefore is perfect as there is a lot of text for readers. The sizes of fonts in magazines is normally smaller, therefore I made the font size 11 in order to follow this style. As this article was a guide to shopping in London I incorporated the list format on the final part of the article, this makes the page more interesting, catches the readers eye and breaks up the article. The masthead of the magazine was in the font Charlemagne std and made to fit the page. I used this same style for each headings on every page, this created the house style and meant that the whole magazine was coherent in style.
For the colour palette I used black for the text and then the burnt orange colour for the headings and the final column on each page. The colour orange creates a warm and happy feeling, it also represents being social and free which is something I think works well with a fashion magazine. Vintage fashion allows people to express themselves freely with the choice of clothing they use, however it also allows you to be social because there are events put on for vintage lovers and particular groups vintage lovers can join. I also included images on every page to add in more colour and more fun to the articles.
No comments:
Post a Comment