Design Journal

Design Research

A magazine is generally seen as a leisure reading material which consist of both imagery and text blocks. The ratio of these two mainly depends on the genre of the magazine. For example, a business magazine when compared to a fashion magazine would have more text blocks than images. There are also magazines which contains a fair amount of both images and text block e.g. music or entertainment magazines. Although it contains a lot of pictures and words, it should still however be easy on the eyes, in the sense that the placement of pictures and text are easy for the readers to see the flow.

To me, I think the most important feature of a magazine is it's cover. The cover has to be simple, organized, and be attractive enough to capture the audiences eyes. The image placed on the front cover is the most important piece - it has to be unique and outstanding and also at the same time have the capacity to put in readable text on it. The text on the cover page need not be a lot; it can be just a few words which highlights the most interesting articles in the magazine. If the importance of words is really high, then choosing a picture which is monotonous in color and does not have a lot of different things going on in that picture is essential so that the audience will be able to focus on the words much more easily.

The magazine that I intend to design in related to the music and entertainment industry. Thus, it will consist a fair share of pictures and words as it involves things like interviews, and some other interesting information of the artist that would be of interest to their fans. The design that I have in mind is a mix of a Victorian elegance and of the modern times. The theme would involve a modern-Gothic feel.

Here are some inspirations that I have gathered to assist me in designing my own personal music magazine:

Cover Pages:

Less words; monotonous color pic; a lot of empty space
Font size is big - emphasis on main interesting article

Moderator. (2012). SHOXX (ショックス) December 2012. Retrieved from
http://jmagazinescans.blogspot.com/2012/11/shoxx-december-2012.html

The picture is bright and a lot of elements;
words are not the main emphasis

Lee, X. (2012). Cure (キュア) November 2012. Retrieved from
http://jmagazinescans.blogspot.com/2012/10/cure-november-2012.html

Not a lot of color variance, text placed in empty spaces

Lee, X. (2012). Myojo (ミョウジョウ) January 2013. Retrieved from
http://jmagazinescans.blogspot.com/2012/12/myojo-january-2013.html

Editor's Note

The simple design of modern times

EzyHealth. (2012). Time well spent. Retrieved from http://www.ezyhealth.com/magazine/?p=3279

The borders are pretty unique - perhaps can change it to something more Gothic

Zethren, K. (n.d). Music (editors note). Retrieved from http://yuccatree.org/museum/eye/eye29_zethren2.html

Table of Content

Main categories on left side with sub articles of it on the right
Was an interesting concept for me.

Saunders, H. (2010). Table of contents. Retrieved from http://hilary-saunders.com/design/

Content Pages

Only picture content

Lee, X. (2012). Cure (キュア) November 2012. Retrieved from
http://jmagazinescans.blogspot.com/2012/10/cure-november-2012.html

Picture with minimum text block

Lee,X. (2012). SHOXX (ショックス) November 2012. Retrieved from
http://jmagazinescans.blogspot.com/2012/11/shoxx-november-2012.html

Less pic & more text block.

Moderator. (2012). SHOXX (ショックス) December 2012. Retrieved from
http://jmagazinescans.blogspot.com/2012/11/shoxx-december-2012.html

Conceptualization

Cover page; Editor's Note & Table of Content

Content pages

Crafting

Cover Page:

Find a pic that has empty space at the top & bottom;
does not have too much variance in color yet it's attractive

Use Text Tool; Font size: 150 pt;
Fill color: White; Stroke color: Red

Use text tool; Font size: 72 pt;
Fill color: White; Stroke color: Dark Purple

Utilize colors that contrast with dark background for text (red, white, fluorescent pink)

Editor's Note:

Insert Victorian style wallpaper as background for a sense of elegance

Use text tool; Font size: 36 pt;
Fill color: White; Stroke color: Red
Font Type is of a Gothic theme to complement the background.

Table of Content:

Use line tool to partition the super-ordinate categories and page reference

Main Titles have a fill color white + stroke color of purple; font size: 20 pt

Adjust the page reference to match it with the article titles (being on the same line)
using Leading

Content Pages:

Find for a picture that is monotonous; easier to insert text and still be readable

Use text tool; change fill color to white.

Use rectangle tool and draw a box; use eyedropper tool on the picture's background
and fill it in the box just created. This is to create a blend with the pic.

Insert text using colors that contrast with dark colors.
For partition, use line tool to draw a line and change it to Dashed (4 and 4)

Use a pic with a lot of white space

To make the two pages look related to each other, use the same pic &
Transform > Flip Horizontal

Side-by-side overall outlook after Transform

For text block to be readable, use rectangle tool to draw a box and change fill to white;
Adjust transparency to 65%

Picture on right side, edited beforehand in Photoshop to make it a transparent background.

Final Artwork

References:

Wallpowper. (2012). The Gazette warped canvas logo. Retrieved from http://www.wallpowper.com/the-gazette-warped-canvas-logo-17448.html

Shattered-tranquility.net. (2009). the GazettE's new look. Retrieved from http://shattered-tranquility.net/index.php/03/09/the-gazettes-new-look/

Mintra, W.M. (2012). Barcode. Retrived from http://mintra-arti3314.blogspot.com/p/1.html

Fanpop. (2012). Pulse wriggling to black wallpaper. Retrieved from http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/the-gazette/images/31003318/title/pulse-wriggling-black-wallpaper-wallpaper

Minitokyo. (2009). GazettE Ruki. Retrieved from: http://gallery.minitokyo.net/view/402880

Fanpop. (2009). Syou(cosmic world). Retrieved from http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/alice-nine/images/538925/title/syou-cosmic-world-wallpaper

Tokyohive. (2011). Vidoll. Retrieved from http://www.tokyohive.com/2011/01/visual-kei-band-vidoll-to-disband-in-may/

Fanpop. (2012). Gotcharocka. Retrieved from http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/jun-and-spiv-states/images/31158568/title/gotcharocka-photo

Fanpop. (2011). The GazettE. Retrieved from http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/jrock/images/20611625/title/gazette-photo

Pulsarecard. (n.d.). Wallpaper red texture. Retrieved from http://www.pulsarecard.com/r_wallpaper_red_texture_60868.html

JpopAsia. (2012). Aoi (the GazettE). Retrieved from http://www.jpopasia.com/celebrity/aoithegazette/

Design Research

A loyalty-building newsletter requires clear, muscular writing and eye-catching design. But that isn’t enough, applying few principles to newsletter design is important for example use headlines to keep readers reading. It doesn’t matter how strong a story is if nobody reads it. The world’s best headline writers work for the supermarket tabloids. They understand an important truth: The headline is what pulls a reader into a story. Hold your nose and buy a tabloid. You’ll see: Despite the questionable content, the headlines are exciting and enticing.

All designs have certain basic elements or building blocks chosen to convey the message beyond the actual words or photos used. How we place those items on the page determines the structure of our designs and affects the overall readability and determines how well our design communicates the desired message. The principles of design govern that placement and structure. Graphic design encompasses the creation of a great many types of projects but for the purposes of these lessons we're focusing on the elements and principles of design as they apply to typical desktop publishing projects including logos, ads, brochures, business cards, newsletters, books, and to some extent web pages.

Different instructors or designers have their own idea about the basic principles of design but most are encompassed in the 6 principles which are balance, proximity, alignment, repetition or consistency, contrast and white space. Before we begin to analyse the layout, the writing, the use of graphics and white space of your newsletter design, we should pick up your newsletter and look at it as if for the first time. One measure of newsletter design effectiveness is the first impression a reader has upon seeing it. Does it say boring, exciting, read me now, save me for later, or, don't bother - there's nothing important here?

Without reading more than a few words the nameplate, the choice of layout, the grayness or openness of the design, color and weight of the paper, the balance of text and graphics all give clues as to the value of the content. Design with definite goals in mind for the newsletter design one goal of good newsletter design is to entice the reader to read the information in the newsletter. Designers achieve this through choice of layout typefaces and use of visuals.

Conceptualization

Cover Page: Design 1

Graphicriver (n.d.) Snowball newsletter. Retrieved from http://graphicriver.net/theme_previews/232175-snowball-newsletter-template

Graphicriver (n.d.) Fresh Corporate newsletter. Retrieved from http://graphicriver.net/item/fresh-corporate-newsletter-/1945557?sso?WT.ac=category_item&WT.seg_1=category_item&WT.z_author=buetler

Design 1

Cover Page: Design 2

Graphicriver (n.d.) Snowball newsletter. Retrieved from http://graphicriver.net/theme_previews/232175-snowball-newsletter-template?index=2

Graphicriver (n.d.) 4-pages newsletter template. Retrieved from http://graphicriver.net/theme_previews/162194-4pages-newsletter-template

Design 2

Content Page: Design 1

Graphicriver (n.d.) Newsletter fresh green (4 pages). Retrieved from http://graphicriver.net/item/newsletter-fresh-green-4-pages/55603?sso?WT.ac=category_item&WT.seg_1=category_item&WT.z_author=GeertDD