Category: Changing Faces Editorial

Bibliography

https://abduzeedo.com/elegant-editorial-design-project-cities-and-names

I like this style with the bold cut off type and the element of chopping up a word to lead the eye across the page. The simplistic colour scheme allows the type to stand for its self.

https://mattwilley.co.uk/AP34-Book

https://mattwilley.co.uk/NYT-COVERS

This is one of my favourite pieces of work as it utilises both messy hand draw script and very contemporary sans serif fonts. The off white image give the art a historic edge yet we know its from a modern time period. The circle makes me think of a camera in the direct sunlight with the lens flare style. Going forward I am inspired to use my own hand writing in use with strong digital type.

https://www.typocircle.com/portfolio/matt-willey/

http://indexgrafik.fr/wolfgang-weingart/

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHBD_en-GBGB710GB710&biw=1280&bih=610&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=-qVkXLfEFo6P1fAPyqmv4Ac&q=wolfgang+weingart+typography&oq=wolfgang+weingart+ty&gs_l=img.3.0.0j0i30j0i24.30426.33419..34965…0.0..0.57.160.3……1….1..gws-wiz-img…….35i39j0i67.fYd4cTi6agc#imgrc=_

http://www.chinablueart.com/paintings/memory-networks/

I really like the elements of free flowing almost like a brain is flowing with ideas/ memories.

Monday 25th February – Group Tutorials 

The article I chose is popular so I listened to the feedback others received and I learnt that we all needed to have more of a clear idea on what our message will be. This can include a subtle version our own bias ideas or a clear tune of the message instead of just being informative. Knowing this now I will choose specific quotes to pull out to illustrate that this woman does have virtually no memories but is still very happy with her life and the lives of her husband and friends.

I explained each idea, the first being the heavily serif typographical and different angles the headings can go. The next idea is to add layers to a basic sans serif font through circles that will be a metaphor the the missing memories. And finally the last idea is to cut the type out with the clouds due to the main woman not fully remembering or attaching herself to the little memory she has.

Through talking to the tutor he mentioned the concept of marginalia. This was new to me so I researched into the styles and history of the topic. The style started as soon as books began. This was increased when printed books came into fashion because the book makers wanted to leave their own personal stamp. This lead to the different types of marginalia – such as; Identification, Personal notes, Student notes, Professional notes, Multiple users, and the classic Autograph.

https://criticalmargins.com/why-marginalia-850a95cefdba

https://nicholasboothman.com/3-reasons-shouldnt-read-book-kindle/scribbled-book/

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-marginal-obsession-with-marginalia

https://eduscapes.com/bookhistory/reader/5.htm

Another suggestion the tutor said was to mess up the word even more. For example “Perpetual” can be altered to “Pturepeal” as long as the first and last letter is kept the same the word can be read due to the brain automatically changing it to be legible. On top of this we discussed pulling apart each word even more. Although this would be a literal meaning of the woman’s memory being split and she has to work out the gaps, using the spread out words this will make the viewer search and work to figure out the title. 

To develop this I will create digital styles of this ideas and add more hand written elements. I will also do some more research into the typeface that I would want to use.

The week leading up to the 25th February – Independent Study

Through looking at my initial thoughts I experimented with different concepts to visualise and take forward the best styles.

The first very basic idea I had was to cut out a very clear sans serif type with cloud like shapes. The idea would have some letters cut in half and off the page, which will represent the thoughts and memories cut open and lost. The second idea has the words split open to imply that a memory is split ready to be taken away.

The next idea was inspired by a Russian designer called Anastasia Genkina. https://www.behance.net/gallery/62477461/Cities-and-Names I like the way she uses feminine typeface but makes it bold and masculine through the size and placements.

I wanted to use those elements of a feminine typeface mixed with the digital sans serif fonts of the body text. I began to play around with scale of the paper as well as the type within.

When creating the ideas, through using different pens across the days, I smudged a section of the work. I like this because it gives the design a human touch, instead of the very digital type as the can give off some aggressive and masculine traits, that the target audience would not like.

The final concept I had was to have a very simple and structured typographics to represent the overall life the main woman has lived. Then on top of that an extremely free flowing dots, which represent the freedom caused by the memory loss. These circles cane be opaque and distort the view to underneath. I’m currently not sure whether the circles should touch as her memories don’t line up but she does try to make the links. I might adjust the scale of each one as the memory size changes throughout her life.

Moving forward I would like to use the sketchy elements that can contrast and balance out the digital contemporary type.

Week of 11th February – Brief + Deconstruction of Articles

This topic’s brief is to be an editorial design, creating a 3 double page spread. I will have an article written that I will need to research into along side understanding the core message, theme and tone of the article.

With a choice of 10 article I read the titles and picked 4 of the most interesting to me, then skim read each one. I quickly realised I was intrigued by “In A Perpetual Present.” This was due to the uniqueness of the woman they wrote about, as she remembers almost nothing from her past yet she is living a fulfilling life. 

Through printing out, highlighting and writing all over the article I began to understand the life that this woman has lead, including how she has managed to find a small number of people who also have this strange case.

In the group with people doing the same article we came up with some simple ideas and possible meanings. One being its a story of a life that is a mystery and through this thoughts how can that be expressed. Whether that is through missing objects, blank and minimalist styles or a puzzle theme where the reader has to figure the story line out.

 

I decided to create my own mind map and use the creative techniques. This helped me remove the very basic and uncreative ideas to go forward with better concepts. I like the idea of having a memory fading and distorted. A concept I tried to remove was the photography as the main woman felt the photos are not of her and she has had to force her self to remember her wedding through the photos.

Going forward I will draw out certain elements and concepts. One that our group spoke about is the strong typographics and no photography.

Monday 11th February – Project launch + workshop

The launch day started with a recap of all the grid system, paragraphing and lettering styles. This lecture was more in depth, going into specifics about the layouts and minor details within one design. As a graphic designer I will have to look for the details that normal people don’t see to fine tune them. These will include;

• the rag/ kerning – overall paragraph style for visuals
• level of hierarchy – lead the eye they way you want
• scaling of the image – cut offs elements to use the viewers imagination/ shows the whole picture to be factual
• dropping/ cutting off some letters – the viewer has to think about a whole word not just read it
• layering/ mixing  illustrations with contemporary typography –
• type detailing – en/ em dash – the used of the correct length
• indentation/ hanging indention – paragraph styles to separate new lines – used to fit with the chosen time period
• Ligature – 2/3 letters placed together for ease of letterpress/ block printing – old fashioned/ can fit in with a specific target audience

 

To prepare us for the official brief we had a small workshop to create 4 double
page spreads between 4 of us. This simplified brief included black and white only, A5 pages and it needed to be cohesive with a clear pace. Each group had a simple title/ topic and mine was “To drone or not to drone.”

To begin with we looked into articles and quickly chose one that fitted the topic well. Then when reading we decided to utilise photos within the articles as well as use photos from individual research.

http://www.ashireporter.org/HomeInspection/Articles/To-Drone-or-Not-to-Drone/15188

https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/uk-drone-laws-2019-3146402

I took the lead with creating a mock up of a grid system, ready to send across to the rest of my group. Before I sent the attachment we all decided on two font styles; one for the title (Oswald Bold) and the another for the body text.

I knew I wanted a whole image taken up across one page and almost intruding another. Then with the white text placed in the image it would have a more aesthetic balance.

Overall I am happy with my outcome as it has a strong  hierarchy with a good balance of type to image. Looking back I think that over all the designs have a different style with the layouts, due to one not having a full photo page and another having a cut out image. On top of this we should had printed a tester font size as the body text is a little too small to be fully legible across a wide range of people.

When we were in the group the tutor mentioned the fact that of the paragraph styling were different throughout the 4 double page spreads. Some had indention and other had a wider leading where a new paragraph started.

In general I feel this helped in the fact that I now know what details to look at and how to create a visually stimulating design across several number of pages.