An Approach to Design

By Sherry, Liz, Fiona, Zoe,

Brianna,

Carrie-Anne, and Erica

The Principles of Publication and Design

The Principles In Perspective

Two Basic Approaches to

Design

The Orderly Approach

Make this design wrap around

The Lively Approach

The Willingness to Experiment

The Need to Simplify

Whether you take an orderly or a lively approach to your

design, you want to make things easy for your readers.

There are many techniques you may use in order to

simplify your design, but even something that looks

simple still requires a lot of work to be put into it.

One way to simplify is to give the reader as few elements

per page or spread as possible.

If you find yourself with many photographs to work into

the design, organize them into one mass, putting them

together so that they form either a true rectangle or

square.

Some designers will organize all the elements so that

they will form three basic areas of unequal size separated

from each other by unequal distances.

Visualization

As the designer of a magazine, there are certain limitations you place on yourself as well as limitations placed on you by the editor: word count, subject, amount of photographs, number of pages etc.

It is very useful when a designer and editor plan the issue together, deciding subject areas for articles and stories. Sometimes you may plan the art and layout of the pages before the article is written.

The most important part of the visualization process is the setting of the mood. You will ask yourself the following questions: photographs or drawings or not art at all? Color? What fonts will I use? Two or three-column pages? All of these elements change the mood made by your design. Choose wisely in order to properly fit the mood of the content and magazine itself.

Whether art follows copy or copy follows art, the two must work in harmony. The art accompanying the article should say the same thing the title does and vice versa.

As a designer you normally would read the manuscript before it is set in type to decide what kind of typographic and illustrative treatment it should have.

When integrating photos into a manuscript, first start with a series of thumbnail sketches. This is helpful in toying with space divisions and fitting all of your content in a visually pleasing way.

In some cases, you would do your designing with galley proofs and photostats of the art, cutting and pasting and moving items around until they give the fit and look you desire.

Stimulating Creativity

“The most conspicuous quality of creative people is

curiousity,” designer George Nelson observes. “Small

children have a large supply of it. Where does it vanish

when the kids grow up? And why?”

Stimulating creativity is as easy as fostering a desire to

learn in oneself. Even after we are finished with school,

we must continue to push ourselves to learn new things

and develop new skills, which will help lead the way to

creative bursts.

Another way to stimulate creativity is to step outside of

the box and try a different style. Maybe you have always

simply doodled and sketched-- try watercolour painting,

take a class, take your camera everywhere you go and

snap a photo of whatever you like. Donʼtworry about

things being nonsensical. Have fun!

Avoiding Design Clichés

Even though it is great to think outside of the box and explore new realms, it

is important to avoid design cliches, which leads to uninspired looking

designs and layouts , and which, in the publishing world, could affect sales.

The following are some common design cliches to be avoided:

1. Picture cutouts: Pictures and graphics do not need to be cut into interesting

shapes such as stars or circles. Often, cutting a picture can ruin the composition and

kill the impact of the photo itself. Stick with square or rectangular shaped photos.

2. Tilts: Tilting fonts renders the text hard to read and will irritate readers and distract

them from what they are trying to read.

3. Vertical typography: Titles are best in a left to right format. Titles with letters run

vertically with letters on top of the other usually makes the title unreadable, and the

font usually has to be in a larger size than is necessary to make it semi-readable.

Mortises: A mortise is type placed on a photo itself, on a large sky or sea landscape.

The mortise usually has a negative effect on the photo and cheapens the look of the

page. Sometimes it is allright to use a photo mortise (picture in picture) for visual

appeal, but it has to be done right.

Overlaps: Overlapping text and graphics, resulting in type reversal, is also distracting

to the eye and interrupts both the text and the graphic.

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