Contrast & Negative Space | The Designers Toolkit - RYATHO

Project Brief

Set exercise 2

Exploiting the principles of contrast and negative space and the assets provided, create two double-page spread layouts (‘splash’ page and ‘turn’ page) using the assets provided.

You must use at least 800 words of the copy across the two spreadsYou must use at least three of the images across the two spreads (you can also find your own images too) You can create more than one set of ‘final’ spreads.

Try to use InDesign to compose your final spreads, though you can use Photoshop to manipulate the images. This is an exercise in experimentation, so explore as widely as time will allow and do not be bound by conventional thinking! The final spreads aren’t the important thing, the exploration of the principles at hand is.

You must use at least three images across the two spread; we have supplied some but we also encourage you to find your own.

As this is an editorial project, you must devise a series of grids before you do anything else
Don't forget about having suitable margins alongside a good balance of guidelines (columns and rows)

You can introduce colour and/or texture in the type, images, background, etc.
You can (and should) manipulate the type (e.g. tracking, leading, outlines, inlines, etc.)

Jump to final outcome

tAKE ME THERE

Research

With the two magazine projects being so similar, I've used the same research for both. There would be little point in trying to separate up different magazines, seen as they all apply to both.

Magazines

Vogue, 1965

Vogue, April 1986

Vogue, January 2024

Thought that vogue would have really interesting layout designs, but out of all the magazines looked at, it's probably the most rigid and repetitive. The more recent issue seems to achieve some layouts better; the layout above with the 1 centred text is different (it looks like it could be 5 columns in reality), and the pages with double spread images look good. The contrast between the years of publish show that it's gotten better as technology has advanced - the earliest issues look a bit busy and crowded.

Wired, September 2018

Wired magazine has some really interesting splash pages within the mix, and varies the layout of most pages across the magazine.They break the rules quite a bit, having text intrude into different columns in parts, which I suppose makes it a bit more interesting to look at.

Turps, Issue 26

Turps was slightly disappointing. I thought this would push different layouts across the magazine, but it's all very similar page-to-page. I do like the use of negative space on the text pages however.

BBC Wildlife, July 2022

BBC wildlife was the best magazine for layouts. It has a mix of both standard column layouts and splashes, of which create a lot of interest, as well as breaking up repetitive spreads of text.

Edge, July 2012

Wasn't expecting much from edge, but I found that they try to mix up their pages using a variety of different layouts. they also like to use different columns widths (smaller central column) to break up long body texts.

Adbusters, November/December 2005

Adbusters have a lot of hero images, making it appear more of a visual magazine. They have a few pages with some layouts, including double page spreads and varying column widths.

Magazine front covers:

Layout Ideas

Recreating LAYOUTS

Before looking for content, I want to spend some time actually learning how to use InDesign. I've only done posters so far, so feel it will be beneficial to build up a basic knowledge of how layouts work in regards to spreads.

Splashes

Thumbnail 1:

Thumbnail 2:

Thumbnail 3:

Thumbnail 4:

Thumbnail 5:

Thumbnail 6:

Thumbnail 7:

Thumbnail 8:

Thumbnail 9:

A lot of these feel a bit... basic. it has however helped me understand using different guides..

Turnpage

Thumbnail 1:

Thumbnail 2:

Thumbnail 3:

Thumbnail 4:

Thumbnail 5:

Thumbnail 6:

Thumbnail 7:

Thumbnail 8:

Thumbnail 9:

Honestly, not much was gained from this. Without content, it didnt really give a feel for any of the layouts. It will however help speed up development later on having some pre-made layouts.

Finding resources

Wanted to see if there was any better images to work with vs. the ones supplied with the project, just to give a bit of variety. There's some really good surface shots below, which would be perfect for the background layout.

SPLASH EXPLORATION

A lot of these feel very predictable. I think because the images are so staged, it makes their use feel very rigid. Want to do something that's different, and I'm not sure im going to be able to do that with either the stock content or the images I've found online.

Content take 2

Not really happy with the initial content that I found for the project, so decided to try using AI to see if some better images could be obtained. Most are using photo-realistic images, so I want to try a different approach by instead trying to get a comic/gamer style image instead.

In the style of comic books:

In the style of retro posters:

3D realistic renders:

Adding extra rules to the retro poster prompt (neon; colour):

A lot of these scream AI. I think the worst ones for me are the ones trying to be 3D realistic; they don't really look any any style, and have quite a few irregularities. The neon colours in the last set are the vibe I want to aim for, although the images still seem a bit unrealistic, but it may work. The best set by far is the retro poster styled images - whilst I wouldn't say they're perfect, they're a step up above the rest.

Splash Development

Grid used: 8 columns + 8 rows

Grid used: 8 columns + 8 rows:

Grid used: 8 columns + 8 rows

Grid used: 8 columns + 12 rows

Grid used: 3 columns + 0 rows

Grid used: 5 columns + 0 rows

Grid used: 8 columns + 8 rows

Turn development

Cover Exploration

Not looking to spend a lot of time delving deep into front covers, as it's not technically part of the brief. Want to look at developing a masthead and how it looks against images. The rest of the cover development will happen alongside finalising the designs.

Masthead Logo

mastheads generally aren't complicated, so stuck with trying san-serif fonts, along with trying to incorporate the spacebar icon (as a play on words).

Mastheads in context:

Image applied to cover:

Ended up settling with this masthead below; it's a version of the 3rd screenshot (added a black box around the spacebar icon). Looking at the screenshots above, it's the only one that was simple enough in that it wouldn't cause issues with image placement, along with giving the vibe that it would work well in other areas.

Final development

Design A

Splash and turn to harmonise:

The goal for the first is to go all out on colour; want something that's bright and possibly garish. Also want to make the two different layouts above work together (they're already slightly similar). For it to be bright and colourful, needed to get some more assets; particularly a background for the splash and front cover.

New generated assets:

They very much look AI generated, But I think this over exaggerated style works for the feel I want to achieve. may look at trying to get some more advanced images later on if time permits at the end.

Front cover development:

Splash & turn development:

Design B

Splash and turn to harmonise:

For this idea, I basically just need to make the two spreads flow better; they both have very similar styles, so they just need tweaked and improved on.

Front cover development:

Splash & turn development:

Design C

Splash and turn to harmonise:

For this one, I want to create a spread that doesn't heavily lean into fantasy/gaming look like the other two, so the goal is only to use photos for this one.

Candidate images: