My first article layout definitely needs some tweaking. It needs color and a higher resolution pic for the main page. It also needs to feel more like an article and less like an advertisement or brochure. There are also still some widows and orphans I need to address in the body copy. And the little logo in the corner can be deleted.
This is my initial ad layout. There is also too much text in this design and the logo is way too large. I need to add color and make some decisions about how to create better balance between each page.
This is my initial layout for the professional picture series. The concept is there but I have to eliminate some information and present the important event information in larger text such as the title of the events and the dates. It's almost there, I just need to simplify because there's way too much text for an event poster.
I wasn't able to blog my first layout because I altered it before making a jpeg. It was pretty crappy. I think this one is better, but definitely not my final one. I still need to fix the resolution on the photos and maybe alter a couple more things that end up bugging me when I look at it another time.
I feel like I really refined and simplified this spread from where it started. I think it is more successful, though the text blocks need to be altered to a more readable form. The headline, though effective, is still a bit boring, so I think I could go back and alter it for more visual interest. As I stated in the last post, I had issues with facing pages in creating this layout, but know how to fix this issue in future designs. I believe the presentation of this spread would look a lot better if the pages weren't separated.
This is my final How Safe? magazine two page spread. I think I did solve the issues with the excessive bars I had in the previous layout, but the final seems a bit on the boring side. I was going for simple, sleek and elegant, but I didn't think about putting in something besides a photo to grab attention. A technical issue I had dealt with facing pages in InDesign, but I now know how to make a two page spread oriented in the same art board. I also had this issue with the Health spread. From now on, it won't happen. And hopefully I can fix this issue within each of these layouts so I can possibly use them for the midterm portfolio.
This layout looks super goofy right now, only because I wanted to see what image works better with the final body text, font and headline. I decided I'm going to get rid of the plate image by the header and extend the image on the left past the gutter to make the layout more asymmetrical. I'll also work with the header and enlarge it to make it stand out more, and to fill a bit more of the negative space that will be above it after the plate image is removed. This one's getting there a bit quicker than the How Safe? layout, which is a nice feeling. Though both of these took me upwards of three hours combined to complete. Hopefully I can make some changes here and there to make them more solid for the final layout presentation.
