Brief
Using about 500 words of Lorum Ipsum (or other dummy text) you are going to design
three different pages:
• an interview with a TV actor in a listings magazine entitled: Will Sheila tell the naked truth?
• a review of a new piece of hardware or software in a specialist computer magazine. • a book review in a newspaper’s weekend edition.
Research these types of publications and identify three different combinations of typefaces appropriate for each publication.
Now you need to invent headings and subheadings for your articles. Set these combinations so that your header is above 12pt in size, your body text is 12pt or below and subheadings sit in between in your hierarchy.
You will need to create some text to allow you to show your combinations in action. Use your text to describe your decision making process, why you think the combination works and what your intentions were.
An interview with a TV actor in a listings magazine entitled
Primary Research
I searched through RBdigital magazines and found couple of TV listing magazines and took a screenshot of some pages.
By looking at these examples, my understandings are:
- Very colourful
- Lots of images
- The combination of serif, sans serif and script typefaces for the headlines
- Body texts are either serif or sans serif typefaces but mostly sans serif typeface
- The typeface for the subheadings are mostly the same typeface as body text but bolder and bigger
- Drop cap applied in most pages
Font pairing
Design process
I started with an initial sketch for the layout of my page.
Through my research, I found that TV magazine’s sizes are A4 (210*297 mm). In InDesign I opened a document and set the top, bottom and outside margins to 15 mm and inside margin to 18 mm. The bleed was set to 3 mm.
Lipsum.com was used to generate 500 words lorem Ipsum.
Font pairing
I had a look at the couple of font pairings and I decided to go for Lust Slim and Artifact for the heading Regular 44 pt and Proxima Nova Soft Regular 11 pt for the Subheading and body text.
A review of a new piece of hardware or software in a specialist computer magazine
Primary research
By looking at these examples, my understandings are:
- The backgrounds are white
- Mono or duotone colour for the types
- Couple of images of the device
- Name and model of the device at the top of the page or underneath a photo of the device
- serif typeface for the headings and subheadings
- Sans serif typefaces for the body text
- Specification box at the bottom
Design process
I opened an A4 document in InDesign and set the top, bottom and outside margins to 13 mm and inside margin to 14 mm. The bleed was set to 3 mm for each side.
Lipsum.com was used to generate 500 words lorem Ipsum.
Font pairing
After some research about font pairing for the tech magazines, I’ve chosen Garamond Bold 31 pt for the heading and Garamond Bold 17 pt for the subheading and Helvetica Regular 10 pt for the body text.
A book review in a newspaper’s weekend edition
Primary research
By looking at these examples, my understandings are:
- White background
- Mono or duotone colour for the types
- Couple of images of the book cover and the author
- A combination of a serf typeface and a sans serif typeface
- Drop cap applied mostly
- A serif typeface is mostly used for the body text
Design process
For the newspaper, I’ve opened a 315*470 mm document in InDesign. 13 mm margin for all sides and 3 mm bleed.
Lipsum.com was used to generate 500 words lorem Ipsum.
Font pairing
I used Baskerville Bold 64 pt for the heading, Open Sans semibold Italic 43 pt for the subheading. Baskerville Regular 12 pt for the body text.
Self reflection
I am really glad that l have finished this exercise. This exercise helped me become more familiar with InDesign. Also, made me to research more about each publication and find a lot about different layouts for each publication, type hierarchy to convey a particular message to the target audiences as well as font pairings. Using different fonts help to catch the viewer’s eye. Also, I found out that to adjust a text in a document besides the font size, there are other elements, which need to be considered like, kerning, leading. Text wrap is important as well to adjust an image on the document. I also found out that the number of the columns, margin and gutter sizes can be different in each publication, which depends on the amount of the text and the overall look of the layout.
References
- Computer Shoppers. At: RBdigital app (Accessed 25/08/2020))
- Google images: Margaret Atwood. At: google images (Accessed 25/08/2020)
- Identifont: http://www.identifont.com/find?font=Baskerville&q=Go (Accessed 25/08/2020)
- Pexels: woman face photos. At: https://www.pexels.com/search/woman%20face/ (Accessed 25/08/2020)
- Step to & Son: 10 DAZZLING WEB FONT COMBINATIONS. At: http://www.steptoandson.co.uk/services/10-great-web-font-combinations/ (Accessed 25/08/2020)
- RBdigital magazines: TV Soap. At: RBdigital app (Accessed 25/08/2020)
- RBdigital magazines: TVyNovelas. At: RBdigital app (Accessed 25/08/2020)
- RBdigital magazines: TV&Satellite week. At: RBdigital app (Accessed 25/08/2020)
- Unsplash: Mobile phone. At: https://unsplash.com/s/photos/mobile-phone (Accessed 25/08/2020)
Maryam: OCA Graphic Design 