Publishing 1: Print Media - Project 3

Week 9 – Week 14 

David Ho Ming Aun (0328394)

Publishing 1: Print Media

Project 3: Magazine Design & Layout

Brief:

This was the brief provided by the lecturer.

Figure 1: Project 3 Brief (1/3)

Figure 2: Project 3 Brief (2/3)

Figure 3: Project 3 Brief (3/3)

Design Development:

Figure 4: Preliminary Sketches

My initial idea was to be very radical and make a magazine that featured primarily on cut-outs, where the pages would actually be cut out. This was an interesting concept as cutting out a page would subsequently cause the page behind it to have the reverse of the cut-out pattern, and I sketched out a lot of ideas and drafts. But alas, practical issues came into light as the flipping of the pages needs to be considered, and difficulty in getting alignments right would pose a problem. Perhaps one day I'll revisit this idea, but this project calls for something else. 

I retained my main topic of paper carving, but this time expanding it to a broader theme — it now encompassed all paper arts, that is, origami, quilling, sculptures, and so on. I proceeded to do some digital exploration on the theme and name of the magazine after some physical sketching.

Figure 5: Sketches 1

Figure 6: Sketches 2

Figure 7: Digital Initial Exploration

Figure 8: Preliminary Drafts

Figure 9: Typeface Tests

It is hard for me to envision a space for my content without actually having the contents, despite my efforts. So I went ahead and searched for the contents and came shortlisted a few good ones with good pictures. I will detail the development of each section below.

1. Cover Story

The cover story was initially about the interaction between the digital world and the world of paper arts, and how they both manage to complement one another rather than phase the other out. I had good stories on the video game Lumino City, as well as digital paper artist Eiko Ojala. However, as time went through the weeks I found myself stuck with the challenge of trying to unify the two articles under one umbrella of "Pixels and Paper". I tried using graphic elements and even tried to develop some key art for the launch and subsequently the cover of the magazine, but that did not work out well.

Figure 10: Cover Feature Development (1/3)

I took the risk and removed Eiko Ojala's article and focused on Lumino City, thus changing my cover story to A City of Paper. This allowed for a more focused scope and made it easier for me to produce more spreads. I expanded the section to 8 pages.

Figure 11: Cover Feature Development (2/3)

Figure 12: Cover Feature Development (3/3)

2. Feature Articles

I had a few ideas for features, but I settled first for this lovely article on Paper For Water  and was intrigued by the change of tone that I think would be good for the pacing of the magazine. 

Figure 13: Feature Article 1 Development (1/4)

Figure 14: Feature Article 1 Development (2/4)

Figure 15: Feature Article 1 Development (3/4)

Figure 16: Feature Article 1 Development (4/4)

For the next feature, I put one of my favourite paper artists from the Philippines (they have some really good artists there!). I wanted something to balance off the vertical stress that may have come from the previous spread, so I decided to revisit one of my old layouts in Project 1, and develop it further with pictures.

Figure 17: Feature Article 2 Development

3. Review Articles

I was initially very confused with the concept and definition of review articles, but eventually, I roughly got it. I had this pop-up book in mind ever since the start of the project that I think would fit wonderfully as a pop-up book review. I had large problems with finding a layout that would fit this page, but after lots of wrestling, I found something satisfactory.

Figure 18: Review Article 1 Development

I enjoyed the following review article on art knives, as I got to play with the strong verticals and create interest with the etch-outs.

Figure 19: Review Article 2 Development

4. Table of Contents

The contents page was something I was also quite adamant on in the beginning, using a net of a tetrahedron to create an interesting shape and to allow snippets of the magazine to be featured in a unique way.

Figure 20: Initial Single Page ToC Draft

Figure 21: Final ToC Spread

5. Cover

The cover needed to go with the cover feature, which in turn underwent a fair amount of changes in itself. 

Figure 22: Cover Design Development (1/3)

Figure 23: Cover Design Development (2/3)

Figure 24: Cover Design Development (3/3)

6. Calendar Cube

This is a little extra I added in for the readers. The readers can cut the square out and follow the folding instructions to make an inflatable calendar cube. This page underwent little changes. The illustrations for the folding instructions were done by me. I'm horrified at the typo as I realise it now.

Figure 25: Calendar Cube Development

Project 3 Final Outcome:

Figure 26: Final Outcome (1/4)

Figure 27: Final Outcome (2/4)

Figure 28: Final Outcome (3/4)

Figure 29: Final Outcome (4/4)

Figure 30: Inflated Calendar Cube

Reflection


1. What was your main DESIGN DIRECTION?

The design direction for the magazine was mainly to utilise the shape and properties of paper to base my layout on. I used a lot of rectangles to reflect the shape of paper and tried to use an overlapping theme to visualise paper.

2. What was your main AIM in resolving this project?

My aim was to create a comprehensive magazine that allowed readers to easily identify the visual style of the magazine but at the same time provide a clean, navigatable layout for easy reading. I wanted the layouts to be interesting despite primarily using rectangles as a design element.

3. What were the tangible, measurable OUTCOMES that you achieved?

For my outcome, I believe I have quite satisfactorily managed the white space using the grid system that I had set in place. I managed to keep the pages looking balanced within spreads while introducing asymmetrical elements here and there, as seen in my cover feature spreads. At the same time, I've managed to utilise symmetry to create interesting page layouts as shown in my feature articles, which feature both horizontal and vertical reflection. Most of all, I managed to create a relatively consistent flavour for the magazine, or at least within each section by demonstrating the use of colour, shape, balance and hierarchy. Little details like the treatment of captions and numbers allow further visual cohesion among the pages.

4. What were your OBSERVATIONS?

I observed myself having difficulty juggling the roles between editor and designer. Given that we had free will to choose our content for the magazine, it left a large portion of the magazine to be relatively unstable, unlike the previous project where the content was fixed, this one was very fluid and underwent a lot of changes as the time went by. Having a fixed content allowed for the spacing and content distribution to be fixed and hence locking that aspect down, allowing me to focus more on the layout design. I observe myself having a lot of ideas initially, but it took a long while before I could lock down some sort of visual direction. That was allowed only as I attempted to do some sample spreads, where the direction slowly progressed from that point onwards.

5. Carry out some REFLECTIONS.

I'm happy as to how it turned out. I spend a lot of time and effort on this project in particular and I am relatively satisfied with how it turned out. I appreciate the feedback of my coursemates as well as my lecturer, as they all had valid points from their perspectives. I am proud of the progress I was able to achieve in the final few weeks where the magazine began to come together, despite my tiredness.

Although I wonder, rather than letting the theme develop on it's own as the project progresses, would it have been better if I had stuck rigidly to a set theme in the beginning? That would allow for more focused and probably more effecient designing, but would it stifle the creative process? I think at some point as a designer we'll be required to work to a particular design style.. so I think I would need to work on that. So far I've been told that my work is very clean and neat far too often, and I do want to explore a looser style next time. 

All in all, I feel that this is a good project and a good outcome to end my semester with. 

Cheers!