Double page spread: research + development

This will be my development and detailed research for my double page spread 

Reflection: This was yet again another time consuming task, I could say second most time consuming. I really focused on my design this time other than the article content as I have finished making it, but what made me shocked was how the process was so intricate and every element should be well placed in order for the negative white space to not look off. Which is why I felt frustrated every time my teacher says theres something wrong cause its like I cant get it right all the time, but then as time passed by and I took advice from the input I received I made lesser mistakes and was able to finish making it on time. 

Problem: Dealing with small mistakes in my double page spread and trying to make it more appealing for the audience to read

Solution: Made lesser mistakes by learning from experience and feedback so that I don't have to re do it over and over again. I also made my text easier to read by using a font and style that was easy to read as well as a separation with a pull quote 

Starting with the research I've done on a couple of double page spreads that caters to the genre my magazine will be (fashion) and what target audience my magazine appeals to (young adults/adults). I will also be listing out my likes and dislikes and what typical conventions fashion magazines double page spread follows (more research took inspiration from old research as well)

We can see that most double page spreads only uses one main image on one page or even two, but all double page spreads uses the same typeface but some use justified or not left aligned text and all articles use a dropcap for the beginning letter of the article. Every double page also includes a pullquote that separates the text or not in a whole new text box, some are even in the image page of the double page spread. However one thing all articles don't use is a byline as no authors are mentioned in a fashion article magazine. Another similarity is that most magazines have a caption explaining what the article is about or who photographed the picture and what the picture was used for on the double page spreads but again captions are only (mostly) used on the image page of the double page spread. 

I also researched on what type of style I want my pull quote to be positioned as there were many designs and layouts to choose from, but I ultimately decided on the one that is positioned like a box as its what looks the neatest even though most fashion magazine do not follow this convention, this is what I subvert in order for it too look different and unique but still keeping my audience engaged and interested. 

As for my caption, we can see that most magazine double page spreads has a small body of text on the image that explains more about the article or what the image is about, so I decided to follow that convention but with who photographed my image in order for the audience to be more aware on who photographed that image. 

Step 1: sketches (rough draft of different layout I have in mind for my double page spread) red text to indicate the type of picture and type of text elements used 

Step 2: digitalise some drafts 

Step 3: choose one draft and experiment

I decided on my second draft as it was actually a hassle for me to add and align all the images in order for it to go through both pages 

 

After getting it rechecked by my teacher I decided to revise a lot on my double page especially on aligning everything with my border. As you can see I moved my pull quote higher and changing the colour of it as well to pink since my teachers gave me input that my double page seem too text heavy. But I also re aligned my texts as you can see from the first draft the middle column of text seemed bigger than the rest which is why I revised it in order for everything to look the same. 

I got my double page checked again and this is when I finalised everything. I decided to make my text left aligned as it made it easier for my audience to read, because if I used justified theres a lot of white empty space in between texts which makes it look messy. My teacher also recommended me to move my pull quote to the middle of my article so that I can balance everything out and not making it look text heavy. 

I also added a pull quote on my other page which was one full image of my model, and I also experimented with a different alignment of text which was justified but as you can see it looks very spaced out and in my opinion theres too much white spacing in the middle, making it look untidy.

But in the last minute I decided on using a caption instead of a pull quote since I wanted to follow the typical magazine convention where they add a caption on the image page 

Step 4: finalised double page spread 

On the day of submission I finally had one last input from my teacher which was fixing the alignment of my article text that was near the pull quote, as you can see now it looks tidier and is more uniform with all the other alignments of text. I also changed my pull quote to a caption and I also enlarged the text that since my teacher said it should cover up more of the empty space. Lastly, I moved my page number of the second page to the right as before it was on the left and it did not follow the typical convention I intended my double page spread to be.