To start putting together Blogette magazine, I decided to still use the Blurb Plug In as it was already set up to accommodate a magazine layout and I liked the unusual dimensions (22x28cm). I set the guides for the document, opting for generous sized margins to avoid content being cut off during the print stage. I went for 6 columns as most of the articles have a lot of text so 3 columns would be too wide and 9 would be far too small. These are just a guide and I can I have text spanning across two columns if I so wish etc. I also created quite a wide gutter of 10pt.
A guide is essential for typographic layout as elements need to be lined up and spaced out properly in order to work well on a page.
Next I played around with putting elements on the pages to get a general idea of how I want them to be laid out (examples below). The Girl Gang article was where I experimented with the margins/columns etc before deciding on the above dimensions. As you can see, the margins were not originally big enough and the large columns meant that text was spanning onto too many pages.
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Editor's Letter
The first page I worked on was the editor's letter as this would then set the tone for the rest of the magazine.
As shown below I experimented with using dripping watercolour in the background. I wasn't sure on it but I carried on with the layout to see where I could take it. To help the image of me stand out from the background and to give it a scrapbook feel, I placed it over the top of a polaroid film and added some free (copyright free) digital washi tape to "stick it" to the page. I really liked the effect of this and ended up using digital wash tapes throughout the rest of the magazine.
After laying the text over the watercolour background I realised it just wasn't working and got rid of it. I also reduced the size of the image and eventually worked the text so that it wasn't spanning across so much of the width of the page; I still needed to add the picture of the birthday cupcake and didn't want the page to look too cramped. .
Below is the final page.
I much prefer this simpler layout with pops of colour (used from the accents in the Taylor Swift advert). Having more white space makes the layout a lot clearer and more professional looking.
The Blog Space
The first double page spread I worked on was The Blog Space as I had already got a base layout that I created in Section 5 of this project .
The article spans across two double page spreads and I am really happy with the overall design. Here the design process for it:
I placed the introduction paragraphs on the title page, choosing to have the text spanning across all six columns. I enjoyed the way drop caps looked in some of the other magazines I looked at so I included a drop cap in the first paragraph, using the Century Gothic font.
Next I had the task of layout out the questions and answers and positioning the photo Anna amongst them. I chose to have text spanning across two columns as it filled the page better. This was when I realised the article would span across two pages and I created the next page and put the remainder of the text on it.
To clarify which parts of the text were questions, I put the text in bold and used the same orange I used across the other design elements, to tie it all together. It was beginning to look like a real spread! The main issues I had was positioning the photograph of Anna and the pulled out quote, above the text. As I was using a 'Wrap around bounding box' it was creating some awkward spacing in the text. I played around with different positions, moving the text around etc until I was happy with the spacing.
I used the yellow shade from the photograph of Anna for the quotation marks as I wanted to have an accent colour but had already used quite a lot of orange. I found that it was too tedious to have the quote as actual text and try to put it in a wrap around bounding box as it was "confusing" the document. Instead I created the quote on Photoshop and input it as an image, to avoid the issue.
On the second page I only had enough text to fill one page and even then it didn't fill the whole thing. I decided to use an image from Anna's Instagram across the whole right hand page which I actually really liked the look of and ended up using a similar technique in other articles.
I also used another image on the right which shows some of the planners mentioned in Anna's answers. I used accents of pink across the design elements and used the watercolour illustrations to tie this page and the orange page together as they were starting to look like separate articles. The black watercolour was a little too harsh against the soft pastel tones so I went for a muted lavender shade instead.
Corrie's Article
Above is the title page for Corrie's article. When I was experimenting in section 5 I liked the idea of having the title page of the main interview, featuring just a photograph of the blogger (in that example I used Nic from Pixiwoo but obviously that has now changed to Corrie), a large title and a short introduction.
I ended up having quite along introduction but I think the page works well. The image of Corrie spans across both pages similar to the Kylie Jenner spread in Look magazine and the whole page looks minimal but complete.
Below is this process for creating the main spread of Corrie's article. By this point I had developed a house style for articles and used similar techniques to The Blog Space article. I used digital washi tapes in muted tones of lavender to compliment the gray tones in the photo of Corrie and her dog.
Again I noticed that the text was spanning onto two pages so I did what I did for The Blog Space article and used a large image on one side
I had a lot of photographs that I wanted to include in Corrie's article and I experimented with a few ways of including them in the spread. I didn't want them to take up the whole space and at first I though about having them as a string of polaroids, to fit with the polaroid in the editor's letter. However, during the process of making I wasn't really like the look of it so thought of a different idea.
I thought about having a strip of photos instead, inspired by Photo Booth pictures. I liked this much better and used pastel pink accented in the main photograph, in between the images. This space also double up as space for captions which worked quite well.
Fox & Feather
The article I found the most difficult to put together was the lookbook. I had a lot of images I wanted to include and didn't want to each photograph filling one page or even two. I experimented with different combinations of photographs until I was happy with the pairings.
The page I've highlighted took a while to get right. The two images were the only ones I had of that particularly outfit so they had to be laid side by side but they didn't really match in their style. Also the one on the right didn't fill the page without cutting off vital parts of the image. I made it smaller and tried different effects to tie the two images together but this didn't work as none of the other images had special effects. In the end I decided to completely zoom in on the fabric of the dress which ended up working really well (shown below). It drew attention to the autumnal detailing in her dress and created a dynamic spread.
Beauty Survival Kit
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| Final Page |
Above is the final page for the beauty survival kit. I experimented with having the article one one page or across a double page as well as the positioning of the text and images. The final layout strikes a good balance between image and text, with the pink, outlined boxes adding a flash of colour. I placed an example advert next to this page which compliments it well.
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| Experimentation |
Other Articles
Below are some screenshots of my design process with the other articles. I spent a lot of time experimenting, and trying to get the layout right. I experimented with everything from colours (of the text, background, accents, washi tapes etc), to the title fonts, body text size (most of the text is at 10-12pt), text alignment (most of it is justified left) positioning of elements (images, texts, embellishments) and adverts.
I ensured that unticked the "hyphenate" box in the 'Paragraph' window so that the text wasn't hyphenated as that is bad practice. I also tried my best not to have any widows and orphans however there are the odd few that I was willing to let slide as changing them created bigger layout problems.
Overall I think the pages are visually interesting and also work well together. They each have individuality creating a dynamic magazine but following the same house style.
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