Friday, 25 April 2014
Speaking From Experience Research - Booklets and Layouts
Thursday, 24 April 2014
Speaking From Experience
Having gone through a lot since the start of university I feel that I have a large amount of knowledge which would be very useful for most people starting next year. Having struggles and successes in almost every area of university life, I will draw upon this and also create questionnaires to find out what my classmates and peers think also.
My first idea was to create a small booklet, called 'UNI | VERSE'. It would be a 2 part booklet possibly using an interesting binding technique to make it more appealing to designers since booklets have been overdone. The 'Uni' section would be information, resources and advice to things such as dealing with your workload, managing time and dealing with collaborations etc. The 'Verse' section would be to do with the life around university. This encompasses things such as things to do in Leeds, how to handle living in halls, ways to inspire yourself using your surroundings such as the cinema or the playhouse. I also wanted to create a double page spread in the booklet talking about the counseling available to students, as there is a negative stigma surrounding mental health especially amount young adults. Since booklets usually just provide numbers that can be rang which are very unappealing I believe this sort of thing would be very useful.
I also thought about producing an A1/A2 poster which could be pinned up in a students halls. It would contain information about the city giving essentially a guide to have fun and keep busy as I firmly believe that extensive time spent doing nothing is bad for the mind and in turn bad for your university work.
I will write all of the content myself as I feel that as a student of LCA it's a more personal a appropriate source of information than a collective from elsewhere.
I believe that the content will not take too long, so I will plan what i'm going to write about, then collect imagery that I will then edit and place into my chosen grid as I think the image editing stage will take the longest.
My first idea was to create a small booklet, called 'UNI | VERSE'. It would be a 2 part booklet possibly using an interesting binding technique to make it more appealing to designers since booklets have been overdone. The 'Uni' section would be information, resources and advice to things such as dealing with your workload, managing time and dealing with collaborations etc. The 'Verse' section would be to do with the life around university. This encompasses things such as things to do in Leeds, how to handle living in halls, ways to inspire yourself using your surroundings such as the cinema or the playhouse. I also wanted to create a double page spread in the booklet talking about the counseling available to students, as there is a negative stigma surrounding mental health especially amount young adults. Since booklets usually just provide numbers that can be rang which are very unappealing I believe this sort of thing would be very useful.
I also thought about producing an A1/A2 poster which could be pinned up in a students halls. It would contain information about the city giving essentially a guide to have fun and keep busy as I firmly believe that extensive time spent doing nothing is bad for the mind and in turn bad for your university work.
I will write all of the content myself as I feel that as a student of LCA it's a more personal a appropriate source of information than a collective from elsewhere.
I believe that the content will not take too long, so I will plan what i'm going to write about, then collect imagery that I will then edit and place into my chosen grid as I think the image editing stage will take the longest.
Tuesday, 22 April 2014
Type Anatomy
I found this great type anatomy infographic which labels each part of the typographical anatomy.
Thursday, 10 April 2014
Double Page Spread design research
Nikola also wrote an article explaining how Body copy in magazines should be set. I found this very interesting and useful, and will take her advice when designing my grid layouts.
Probably the most important magazine page element is the body text or body copy as some refer to it. Magazine readers do not notice properly set body text. They notice nice images, powerful headlines, but they do not notice body text. And this is a good thing. Properly adjusted body text should be unnoticeable and it should not interfere with the process of reading. It should be invisible so that the reader is never aware of the reading process.
On the other hand, if the body text is not set properly, this can lead to bad readability and it can annoy potential readers, but for us editorial designers this is the first thing we should do and if the result is unnoticeable than you know you did a good job.
If you choose a sans serif type you can choose from the usual suspects like Helvetica, Franklin, Univers, Gill sans, Meta, Swiss and so on.
I personally rarely use sans serif fonts for body type. For longer feature articles I almost always go with serif type and I leave sans for smaller sections and text in boxes, but no one says you cannot choose a sans serif for longer articles. It all depends on the nature of the publication.
Though sans serif fonts is a bit harder to read than serif fonts, you should increase the leading up to 135-140% for easier line to line eye transition.
Pick one font and use it for all body text in the entire magazine.
There are no strict formulas for setting the proper body type by itself. The size of the body text should work with the width of the column and it should be appropriate for the targeted audience. Let’s say that the majority of your readers will be seniors, 60 years and older. For them the size of body type should be larger. The same principle applies to small children.
Body text sizes can range from 9pt to even 12pt. Although I have never set any body text in 12pt. There is no one size fits all principle, but do not go bellow 9pt and do not go over 12pt. Newspapers are usually set in 10pt, but this is not a rule set in stone.
The size also depends on the x-height of the font selected. X-height makes type look big or small.
Leading should be set at default 120%. For narrower columns you can decrease it and for wider you should increase it.
There are almost no differences in readability of text aligned left and justified. If you plan to use justified alignment, adjust properly its justifying settings.
Text aligned left can provide some valuable white space in text columns and it does not create a dull horizontal look like justified text columns.
Sometimes you can use vertical thin rules to divide the text columns of text aligned to the left. It will make these columns look tidier but if your text is justified, there is no need for vertical rules between the text columns are already perfectly straight in a vertical line.
Each paragraph of text can have a horizontal indent in the first line of the paragraph. The paragraph just bellows the subhead does not have to be indented. Indent should be from 3-5 mm, depending on the width of the text column. Instead of indent, you can use drop caps at the beginnings of the paragraph, but do not over do it. Also never indent the paragraph that has drop cap applied.
After you have set the size, leading and alignment, create few columns and fill them with dummy text. For example, create three columns spreading from top margin to bottom margin and place some text in them with the settings you have chosen.
Print one page and take a look at it. Does it look too gray? Is it too bright? This is called the texture of body text and it should be optimal, neither too dark neither too bright.
Try out some different point and leading sizes, create columns, fill them with text again, print and compare. See which ones look better. There are no rules and the best result will be the one that looks optimal. Read the text in the columns and if you can read it with a nice flow and without interruption you have made it.
Reading comfort depends on the ratio of type size to line length to line spacing and they all have to be in balance and you are the one that is setting this comfort for the reader so choose wisely.
Probably the most important magazine page element is the body text or body copy as some refer to it. Magazine readers do not notice properly set body text. They notice nice images, powerful headlines, but they do not notice body text. And this is a good thing. Properly adjusted body text should be unnoticeable and it should not interfere with the process of reading. It should be invisible so that the reader is never aware of the reading process.
On the other hand, if the body text is not set properly, this can lead to bad readability and it can annoy potential readers, but for us editorial designers this is the first thing we should do and if the result is unnoticeable than you know you did a good job.
The
visual difference is obvious between the different fonts in same sizes.
Lyon looks dense and page filled with this font would be too dark. On
the other hand, Garmond looks spacious and would produce page that is
too bright. In this size and in these settings, Caslon seems like the
best choice.
Choosing body text font
When choosing a proper body text font, choose the ones that will suit your publication. You can choose sans serif fonts that have proven to be a great choice for body text. Some of them are Caslon, Jenson, Chronicle, Miller, Palatino, Garmond and Goudy to name a few. Although they are popular, never ever use Didot and Bodoni or any similar font for body text. They are not intended for display at small sizes and for lengthy article reading because of their big contrast in thick and thin strokes.If you choose a sans serif type you can choose from the usual suspects like Helvetica, Franklin, Univers, Gill sans, Meta, Swiss and so on.
I personally rarely use sans serif fonts for body type. For longer feature articles I almost always go with serif type and I leave sans for smaller sections and text in boxes, but no one says you cannot choose a sans serif for longer articles. It all depends on the nature of the publication.
Though sans serif fonts is a bit harder to read than serif fonts, you should increase the leading up to 135-140% for easier line to line eye transition.
Pick one font and use it for all body text in the entire magazine.
Body text sizes
When designing a magazine from the scratch first thing you should do is to choose the body text font and its size. It all starts from there.There are no strict formulas for setting the proper body type by itself. The size of the body text should work with the width of the column and it should be appropriate for the targeted audience. Let’s say that the majority of your readers will be seniors, 60 years and older. For them the size of body type should be larger. The same principle applies to small children.
Body text sizes can range from 9pt to even 12pt. Although I have never set any body text in 12pt. There is no one size fits all principle, but do not go bellow 9pt and do not go over 12pt. Newspapers are usually set in 10pt, but this is not a rule set in stone.
The size also depends on the x-height of the font selected. X-height makes type look big or small.
Leading should be set at default 120%. For narrower columns you can decrease it and for wider you should increase it.
Body
copy aligned left with 3mm indent on the first line of each paragraph
and with horizontal rules in between the text columns.
Body text alignment
There are only two options for body text alignment. Left and justified. Never centered and never aligned right.There are almost no differences in readability of text aligned left and justified. If you plan to use justified alignment, adjust properly its justifying settings.
Text aligned left can provide some valuable white space in text columns and it does not create a dull horizontal look like justified text columns.
Sometimes you can use vertical thin rules to divide the text columns of text aligned to the left. It will make these columns look tidier but if your text is justified, there is no need for vertical rules between the text columns are already perfectly straight in a vertical line.
Each paragraph of text can have a horizontal indent in the first line of the paragraph. The paragraph just bellows the subhead does not have to be indented. Indent should be from 3-5 mm, depending on the width of the text column. Instead of indent, you can use drop caps at the beginnings of the paragraph, but do not over do it. Also never indent the paragraph that has drop cap applied.
After you have set the size, leading and alignment, create few columns and fill them with dummy text. For example, create three columns spreading from top margin to bottom margin and place some text in them with the settings you have chosen.
Print one page and take a look at it. Does it look too gray? Is it too bright? This is called the texture of body text and it should be optimal, neither too dark neither too bright.
Try out some different point and leading sizes, create columns, fill them with text again, print and compare. See which ones look better. There are no rules and the best result will be the one that looks optimal. Read the text in the columns and if you can read it with a nice flow and without interruption you have made it.
Reading comfort depends on the ratio of type size to line length to line spacing and they all have to be in balance and you are the one that is setting this comfort for the reader so choose wisely.
Double Page Spread design research
I found an interesting article which helps explain layouts and how the eye tracks text. It is written by Nikola at Magazinedesigning.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Magazine spread is two pages that are next to each other. Each spread works as one unit. It is not two pages separated but two pages that work together to create one unit. When designing magazines it is vital to look at these two pages as one single element even if those pages are going to contain two different stories. Even if one of the pages is containing an ad or even if one story is ending on left page and another is starting on the right page (if possible you should avoid situations like these but sometimes they are unavoidable).
Readers see a spread as one unit. Since magazines are smaller than newspapers, magazine spread can be “digested” in one view because our peripheral vision encompasses the entire spread at normal viewing distance. On the other hand newspaper, especially large format broadsheet newspapers are scanned in several takes.
Because of this you have to consider what will be on the other side of your spread. Will it be an ad, will it be beginning of another story or maybe full bleed image.
The most visible area at that point is the outer part of the right page. Other example is if you put magazine on the table and start flipping the pages, the lighter (left part) of the magazine will be flipped and folded but the heavier (right part) will stay flat on the table, hence more exposed to the viewer’s eye. The process is reversed if someone is flipping magazine from the last page, than the outer left area of the page is the most visible one.
You should place your best content on the outside parts of the spread. These are the areas that are most seen. This is the place to put most provocative images and words. Put the best stuff where it will be most visible and where it will make the best impact. Most valuable areas of page spread are top left and top right parts, because when you skim through the magazine these are the areas where you look the most. Make the most of them.
On the other hand, bottom part of the spread, inner corners near the gutter are less important. Have you ever noticed how designers place footnotes and some credits in those parts of the spread? Now you know why.
I have seen this in so many examples, but try to avoid it. It is not good design if the reader has to search through the page to find most important thing (if there is no image on the page), and that’s the headline. It is even worse if you put the headline at the bottom and you put beginning of the story on top of it.
This is not a natural way of reading the story. Everything should have flow. You should work your way from the meaningful top left and then continue to the bottom. Headline, intro copy and then the main copy. That should be your guide.
This is the natural way of viewing things, unless designer pulls his attention away by placing elements on the page that will attract the reader’s eye. Sometimes headline can go on the bottom part of the page if this pages has full-page image that bleeds out of the page.
Things should be simple, and you should simplify the design by aligning the columns at the top and placing images above them. In this way reader will have no problem to follow the text part of the story.
Take a look at these images above and you will see how the flow of the text is better in the second image. Red lines represent the direction of the eye. You will see how harder is to follow the text flow in first image.
Left pages are great for editorial content. It is always good to know which ad will go on the opposing page. In this way you can design editorial page in a way that will correspond with the ad. It is best to make a contrasting design on your editorial page. For example, if the ad is in blue shades, you should not use blue as central color on your page. If the ad has emphasized image that bleeds out, you should design your page with more text and very few images. In this way reader will have no problem do distinguish what is editorial and what is ad. Of course sometimes this is hard to carry out but try to make your editorial pages different from ad pages.
Try to remember these rules and follow them, once you are familiar with them you can start to break them, but only if it will bring something interesting and make design better. Do not do something different just for the sake of making it different. Always have meaning for whatever you do.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Magazine spread is two pages that are next to each other. Each spread works as one unit. It is not two pages separated but two pages that work together to create one unit. When designing magazines it is vital to look at these two pages as one single element even if those pages are going to contain two different stories. Even if one of the pages is containing an ad or even if one story is ending on left page and another is starting on the right page (if possible you should avoid situations like these but sometimes they are unavoidable).
Readers see a spread as one unit. Since magazines are smaller than newspapers, magazine spread can be “digested” in one view because our peripheral vision encompasses the entire spread at normal viewing distance. On the other hand newspaper, especially large format broadsheet newspapers are scanned in several takes.
Because of this you have to consider what will be on the other side of your spread. Will it be an ad, will it be beginning of another story or maybe full bleed image.
Gray
areas represent the most visible areas of the spread. Darker shaded
area is more visible than the lighter shades. Readers eye is drawn to
the upper parts that’s why those areas have the most impact.
Elements of the spread
Not all areas of the spread are equal. Some have more importance, some have less. For example, when you go to the newsstand, you pick up some magazine, you grab the magazine by the spine with your left hand, and with your right hand you flip through the pages.The most visible area at that point is the outer part of the right page. Other example is if you put magazine on the table and start flipping the pages, the lighter (left part) of the magazine will be flipped and folded but the heavier (right part) will stay flat on the table, hence more exposed to the viewer’s eye. The process is reversed if someone is flipping magazine from the last page, than the outer left area of the page is the most visible one.
The most visible parts of a spread are outer upper parts
You should place your best content on the outside parts of the spread. These are the areas that are most seen. This is the place to put most provocative images and words. Put the best stuff where it will be most visible and where it will make the best impact. Most valuable areas of page spread are top left and top right parts, because when you skim through the magazine these are the areas where you look the most. Make the most of them.
On the other hand, bottom part of the spread, inner corners near the gutter are less important. Have you ever noticed how designers place footnotes and some credits in those parts of the spread? Now you know why.
Bad example of placing headline and intro text. It is not a natural way of skimming through the story.
Readers eye direction
When influencing on the reader your design should have meaning. Readers concentrate on the top parts of the spread. This is the first place where their eye will stop when they skim through the pages, so you cannot start your story by placing headline on bottom right page. This is not natural starting point.I have seen this in so many examples, but try to avoid it. It is not good design if the reader has to search through the page to find most important thing (if there is no image on the page), and that’s the headline. It is even worse if you put the headline at the bottom and you put beginning of the story on top of it.
This is not a natural way of reading the story. Everything should have flow. You should work your way from the meaningful top left and then continue to the bottom. Headline, intro copy and then the main copy. That should be your guide.
In
this case it is OK to place the headline at the bottom. Reader will
have no problem following the story, besides, it would be awkward to
place the headline on top of the model’s head.
This is the natural way of viewing things, unless designer pulls his attention away by placing elements on the page that will attract the reader’s eye. Sometimes headline can go on the bottom part of the page if this pages has full-page image that bleeds out of the page.
This
is an example of bad text flow. You can see how the flow of the story
is not natural and the reader will have hard time following the text.
Image and body text arrangement
When placing big blocks of text, try not to break them up. You should not throw elements on a page just for the sake of throwing them around. Let it have a meaning. A flow. If you put barriers on the page, reader will have hard time following the flow of the story. Keep the flow of the text columns tidy and even.Things should be simple, and you should simplify the design by aligning the columns at the top and placing images above them. In this way reader will have no problem to follow the text part of the story.
This
is good example of text flow. Text and images have their own place and
importance. Flow is natural and reader will have no problem following
it.
Take a look at these images above and you will see how the flow of the text is better in the second image. Red lines represent the direction of the eye. You will see how harder is to follow the text flow in first image.
Ad pages
Advertisers prefer right pages. Since advertisers want great exposure that’s why they insist to be placed on the right page. Again, as you skim through the magazine you will notice their ad much easier. Especially if the ad is in vertical half a page format. Placing that ad in the inner part of the page, near the gutter, would be great mistake. Costly mistake.Always look at a spread as a unit
Left pages are great for editorial content. It is always good to know which ad will go on the opposing page. In this way you can design editorial page in a way that will correspond with the ad. It is best to make a contrasting design on your editorial page. For example, if the ad is in blue shades, you should not use blue as central color on your page. If the ad has emphasized image that bleeds out, you should design your page with more text and very few images. In this way reader will have no problem do distinguish what is editorial and what is ad. Of course sometimes this is hard to carry out but try to make your editorial pages different from ad pages.
Try to remember these rules and follow them, once you are familiar with them you can start to break them, but only if it will bring something interesting and make design better. Do not do something different just for the sake of making it different. Always have meaning for whatever you do.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)