Magazine Layout Tutorial

In this post I will demonstrate some basic design skill that I learned in class

Task 1:

My teacher first tasked me to an exercise of drawing a multiple (minimum of 5) covers for my magazine within a span of 5 minutes. Here are my sketches. 

Reflection : I found these exercise simple yet fun to do. The time limit forced me to move on to another sketch after finishing one, which I think was an effective way of brainstorming because I did not get stuck on only one draft and was able to expirement in different ways I could layout a magazine cover. These sketch weren't very detailed due to the time limit, however I think I got the main idea down such as placement of masthead, main coverline, image and barcode. However the short time I was given also meant I wasn't able to look back on my research and could only do it off the top of my head so I think this could've been a reason as to why my sketches were quite plain and generic as overhead shots were extremely common within the genre and was the first thing I could think of. I would definitely try to find more interesting shots i could do.

Task 2 : 

Next, my teacher gave my class a template to practice making various magazine layout on google draw. Similar to the task 1, I was told to make various layouts of magazine covers with a template that was given, with a time limit of 10 minutes. Here is the template my teacher gave;

Here were the magazine cover layouts I made in those 10 minutes, labelled with numbers from 1-5; 

Reflection: I found this task of rearranging prepared material and experimenting extremely fun, it was a familiar feeling to dress-up games. I enjoyed finding new ways to place different text boxes without much care in mind. Despite actually liking how most of turned out, I did have some problems where I found the positioning of some texts box quite awkward like the main coverline on magazine 4 even when I've shuffled it around multiple times. I also think I could have experimented more if it were not for the time-limit.
 

Task 3 :

 After the timer ran off with my 5 covers, my teacher explains to my class about the 4 fundamentals when designing magazine covers which consists of borders, hierarchy of type, typeface, colour (explained further below). I was then told to go back and revise my magazine covers where I will now consider and apply these elements.

• Borders

Borders are placed on magazine as a boundary. All elements of a magazine cover (including texts, images, etc) should not go past the border and be correctly aligned to said border thats been set inorder to properly organize content, prevent visual clutter and appear neater, thus seem more professional. 

• Hierarchy of type

Hierarchy of type considers the way people read, or otherwise known as visual hierarchy, and capitalises it by adjusting text's (like the masthead and main coverline) positioning- from top to bottom and or left to right- based on its importance. This will help audience quickly navigate content easily with the use of emphasized key information. For example, the masthead and main coverline will need to stand out by having a unique feature that differenciates them from the rest of the text with a different size, font weight, typeface, colour and much more.

• Typeface

Typeface is defined as a particular design of type used in a text which is an essential part of the magazine's visual identity as it can determine the magazine's personality and readability. Certain typefaces have themes and conventions which tie them to certain tones. Sans serif, for example, has a more relaxed and modern theme compared to serif's classy and sophisticated theme. This slight difference in typefaces can influence the magazines reach towards its target audience.

• Colour

Colour choices greatly impact the aesthetics of a magazine design as colours carry connotations that could evoke emotions, set an atmosphere or create visual intrigue to peak the interest of audiences. They could guide the readers attention or complete the magazine's cohension and attrativeness.

Here are my revised magazine covers:

Reflection: I, unfortunately, was unaware of this new task beforehand and had not saved my previous designs on their own page. This caused me to go back and recreate the magazine layout before then applying my new found knowledge of design essentials. Because of this, I was unable to do all 5 of the magazine I created, only finishing 3 (number 2, 3, 5). I assume because this- added with of the time crunch of this task- was the reason behind my layouts feeling rather disappointing as there were just slight change to colour and typeface. Nonetheless, this was a great lesson that taught me to pay attention to the 4 elements of design to guarantee my magazine can stand out amongst its competitors. I'm proud of myself for having subconsiously following the border rule when designing these layouts but I still have much to improve on.