Category: My Reflective Journal

Homework (2 days)

• Watch the videos provided below
• Complete the LinkedIn Learning exercise files and submit it with your assignment

Designing a Magazine Layout With Nigel French

Learning Print Production With Claudia McCue

Research, written and practical assignment (problem solving)

• Use the magazine style brochure that you designed in Module 5. Add a spot varnish to the cover and change the design to use spot colours. (You are welcome also make layout changes if you want to.) For your magazine, use a spot varnish for the cover and design it using two spot colours.
• Make use of your checklist that you designed and prepare the file for print.
• Decide what paper weight and type you will use. 
• Decide what type of binding you will use, for example, saddle stich, perfect bind, etc. (See the printing terms link.)
• Upload the print-ready PDF to your blog and post screenshots of your packaged files, and instructions.

Make sure to include the instructions (like spot varnish, paper choice and binding) in the file.

Using InDesign, design a 8-page brochure for a fictitious travel agent.

• The size of the brochure should be A5 (when it is folded).
• Design the brochure in full colour.
• Use fake body copy but create sensible headings.
• Use titles, headings and images of your choice.
• Be sure to pay attention to:

• Choice of type
• Choice of imagery
• Use of layout and grid to communicate the content.

This is the best task to now, I really enjoyed doing this task!

For this I wanted to make a travel brochure for Dovre National Park, the wildlife edition. I wanted to make a seasonal edition where you can read about the different seasons, and what you are able to see throughout the four seasons.

I’ve used the same photo for the frontside and the backside, so if you fold it out you can see the whole photo.

Page two is the overall info about exploring the wildlife at Dovre, while the third is more about how important it is to care about the welfare for both the nature and the wildlife. The photo on these two pages is my own photo from my trip there in February.

Page 4-7 is the four seasons with animals. I’ve only used one photo for each season so it wouldn’t get to much photo, what you can see of wildlife will be written under/over the photo. I used a colored rectangle under the type that I dragged into the middle to give it a more interested look.

Now I’m really looking forward to starting on my egg booklet, I really like doing task like this!

All of the photos except the one that I’ve taken is from stock.adobe.

Compare the design (in terms of pace and contrast) of an online magazine, blog or website to that of a printed magazine, book or journal.

• What differences can you see between the kinds of design strategies used in the two formats?
• Write down your findings and upload it to WordPress.

For this task I used an article from the lasted issue from National Geographics. I wanted to use this article because it is on the digital page and also in the printed version. You can clearly see that there is much more white space on the digital version. The digital version is also a bit more compact since they are using slideshow on the photos.

On the digital version the type runs more throughout the article. But on the printed version it’s only the caption for the photos on the first pages, and on the last page there is the backstory.

The digital version has also some adds on the sides and between the photos and type.

I do prefer the look on the printed version, it feels more complete and clean to look at.

Digital version.

Printed version.

Take a magazine, newspaper or book that includes images and text. Lay tracing paper over the top of three spreads (both left-hand and right-hand pages). Using a pencil and ruler, carefully trace the grid underlying the page layouts. Remember to remove specific text elements or images, and to only draw the grid lines. Note column widths and margin sizes at the top, bottom, and to the left and right of the main body of text. Is your document based on a two-column, three-column, or another type of grid? Which elements stay the same on each page, and which change?

Publish your findings to your WordPress blog and provide photos or scans of your exercise.

So I actually don’t have that many magazines at home, so I used the latest edition of naturfotografen that I get through the photograph club that I’m a part of. It’s not completely straight because I have a injury in my left hand, so it was difficult to use the ruler.

Spread 1-2 and 3-4

Margin top: 1,7cm
Margin bottom: 1,7cm

Left page
Margin left: 1,4cm
Margin right: 0,9cm

Right page
Margin left: 0,9cm
Margin right: 1,4cm

Spread 5-6

Left page
Margin top: 1,9cm
Margin bottom: 2,5cm
Margin left: 1,4cm
Margin right: 0,9cm

Right page
Margin top: 1,9cm
Margin bottom: 3,3cm
Margin left: 1,7cm
Margin right: 1,4cm

These spreads was different and only spread 1-2 and 5-6 had page numbers, these was placed on the bottom and where 0,6cm high. The document is based on a three column grid. And the photos is placed in the top or at the bottom of the pages.

In this assignment, you will be given the opportunity to also test your idea sketching skills. It is important to start working with basic ideas on paper and develop your concept from there on out.

• On an A4 landscape page, draw four equal squares. Create 4 more pages in this way. So, you’ll have 5 pages with four squares on each.
• Draw one or two squares or rectangles in each empty square to achieve the visual effects that you see on the first page of module 3 in Graphic Design School textbook. You can work with the interaction of rectangles and squares to make the balance or imbalance more evident.

• Entering left
• Movement to the right
• Movement to the left
• Movement downwards
• Movement upwards
• Balance
• Tension
• Symmetry/asymmetry

Produce at least two different versions of each effect, recording your results each time. Explain in one or two sentences what you wanted to achieve (as shown in your manual).

Entering left: Here I used two different sizes where minimum one is touching the outline, I felt this makes it look like it actually coming in to the frame rather then exiting.

Movement to the right: I placed these shapes, so it looks likes it is exiting on the right side by using a bigger shape to the right, and also just by using one single big square.

Movement to the left: It’s the same principle as the previous, but here is it placed on the left side.

Movement downwards: On the first I used two different sizes, where the largest is nearest the bottom to make it look like its falling/sinking down. On the second one I’ve used to equal sized rectangles to make the same effect.

Movement upwards: It’s the same as the downwards, but I’ve rotated the rectangles, so they are vertical to make it look like it’s floating upwards. I feel the vertical makes it look lighter.

Balance: Here I’ve placed two equal squares with the same margins on the sides and the same top and on the bottom. I have also made just one square where it is centered in the middle.

Tension: Here I made the squares/rectangles touch or overlap each other to make tension between them.

Symmetry: A small square in the left and right corner, placed the same pace to make it symmetrical.

Asymmetry: Two different sizes that is not lined up to each other.