Visual Hierarchy: Week 13

I really like the visual hierarchy of the New York Giants website for several reasons. For starters, I like how the links to the different pages are all in white text in a horizontal line at the top of the page. The links are very easy to find, and also have even more information when you roll your mouse over them.

As you highlight the links at the top, a white screen comes up with more links, contrasting the blue background behind it which helps you find what you are looking for even more by directing your eyes to the white box. As soon as you roll your mouse over to a new link, another white box will appear with different links in it.

As you scroll down the site, you are also greeted with more information such as polls, headlines, and standings. The website is a great portal for any Giants fan, as it contains a load of information and great visual hierarchy.

Elena Carroll- Hierarchy. Week 13

On occasion I have needed to diagnose symptoms, and I have found this website to be very visually pleasing and easy to navigate. The content is organized logically, and it is interesting and seems to make sense in my mind. The title of the site is located on the top left, and the search is right at the center next to the title. There are also different tabs available for selection right above the search bar to draw the eye up to the options to make the search easier. The pictures and ads stay on the right hand side, and the tabs and different categories remain on the left hand side.

To complete the hierarchy, the picture in the middle separates all the material, since the site does have a a lot of words and typography. The site also has headlines in green to help establish a hierarchy for all titles. All select options are also available in orange to direct the eye and make selecting easier. The top has blue titles, and then the blue stays consistent through the small print at the bottom. The site looks clean, organized, and inviting.

Esquire's Augmented Reality Issue | Very, very cool...

Traveling this holiday break, I stopped by the airport magazine shop and picked up Esquire's newest issue and decided to give it a try - see what all this augmented reality was about.

Well I am glad I did. In my opinion, I don't think this will ultimately save the magazine industry, but I think it change and possibly revolutionize it. This technology opens the door for so much technology and personalization within the issue.

I am still exploring what's inside this Esquire issue with the new little white and black box, but I can't wait to see what other titles will pick the hottest technology up.

Here are a few screen shots I did while exploring the issue...

 

Mitchell

Jen Brotman- Hierarchy

I don't really visit many different webpages frequently, but I thought that my sorority's national website conveys hierarchy well. Important elements are emphasized and the content is organized logically and predictably. The search box located in the top right area is predictable, allowing the user to go straight to what she is looking for. One doesn't have to search for the search. There are really simple tabs on the same level to direct the user by what kind of user she is. These are part of a logical hierarchy.

Readers first see shapes and colors, with foreground elements contrasting against the background. The background is blue and the foreground white, which is contrasting. The tabs are in pink, which is a warmer color than the blue background allowing them to stand out and become important text to the user. The main graphic attracts the user as well, breaking up the text. The text then below becomes the least important because the user may skip it if they go straight to a search or tab. These elements combine to show hierarchy and direct the user.

Mag Project: Jordan Clifford

Design Strategy:

I chose to do a health magazine because as a magazine journalism major I am interested in going into health/fitness journalism.

With that said, this project was much harder for me than I thought it was going to be. My toughest trouble was finding photos. I found the pictures I wanted but in order to get them the way I wanted them I would have had to pay an excessive amount of money, and being a poor college student, good photos just weren’t in my budget. But I found a way to get through it, although my photo quality had to suffer.

My feature story came from “Psychology Today,” I found it through pro-quest on our library’s website. My initial headline first read “Think Color” but it was somewhat confusing and didn’t really lead to my story. So instead I changed the headline to “Nutrient Non-sense,” because the article explains how it’s always so confusing to know what nutrients you are getting and from what, but it explains that if you focus on color you are sure to get all the necessary nutrients you need.

My flag kind of just came to me. I knew I wanted it to say health somewhere so I played around with naming it “Healthcraze” or “Healthycraze” – I liked the way the y dropped down so I chose the latter. I also chose to italicize “craze” because I liked the way the z curved. My bylines are collective but the photographer is made up because my photos came from Google searches. My menu items (photos and recipes) all came from fitnessmagazine.com, but I added in a fake website for my magazine to draw some authenticity to the sidebar.

Choice of Typefaces:

My front cover has a variety of typefaces on it to create variation. My flag and folios are created with the same typefaces in the same format to create gestalt (Times: Bold, Italic, and Regular). I used Albertus MT Std for my article headline, drop cap, sidebar headline and each recipe nameplate. My deck head, collective byline, pull quotes, and sidebar small type are all Cronos Pro Display (and Caption for the byline.) My body text and photo captions are all Baskerville; I felt it fit better than Berkley Old Style or Times New Roman.

Color:

I pulled my colors from the food in the photo on my first spread. The orange I used for my headline, byline, drop cap and quotation marks; I also pulled it for my magazine cover – I really liked the way it popped and how the white type looked really clean on top. The orange is R: 255 G: 161 B: 45. The green accent is R: 146 G: 175 B: 8. I used it for my deck head, and recipe boxes. I also had it as my pull quote type color but it looked somewhat odd and I wasn’t exactly sure how I felt about it so I cut it.

Overall I’m please with my project. It didn’t come out exactly the way I envisioned it would but some sacrifices had to be made

Citations:

Photos:

http://healthyeatingdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/iStock_000008320895XSmall.jpg

283x424 pixels 300 DPI\

http://igopink.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/woman-holding-fruit.jpg

849x565 pixels 72 DPI

http://smallbiztechnology.com/media/shopping-at-grocery-store.jpg

425x282 pixels 240 DPI

Recipes:

http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/recipes/quick-recipes/breakfast/easy-healthy-egg-recipes/?page=6

300x300 pixels 72 DPI

http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/recipe/seafood/sauteed-baja-fish/

200x200 pixels 72 DPI

http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/recipes/quick-recipes/dinner/easy-healthy-pasta-recipes/

300x333 pixels 72 DPI

Floating Re-Do; Magazine Project; Alyssa Hillman

I apologize for the spacing!

I actually started preparing for this project last spring when I enrolled for GRA 217. I started collecting my TIME magazines and hoping to find a feature article that would trigger my interest. I knew that I wanted to use a news article because I knew that it was going to be hard. It would force me to research photographs that were not just found on Google.com and would force me to get passionate about the article. The Detroit article not only inflicted emotion but also had very vivid visual cues and many active verbs to use. I also knew that the subject (auto industry) would be fun to come up with headlines.

I immediately thought of the “Run on Empty” headline but the first spread visual took a while. I was having a difficult time including pictures, text and a graphic that complimented the headline. The dashboard idea fit and I was able to use this idea throughout the spreads in order to combine the visuals. Each separate dashboard circle was drawn using the line and circle tools. The headline was also supposed to shadow the gasoline tank with colors and shape. The Detroit skyline was also traced and perfectly framed the dashboard.

The main typeface families that I used were ITC Franklin Gothic, Century Expanded LT Std, Helvetica Rounded LT Std and Helvetica Neue LT Std. Within each family, I used multiple faces to create texture with the information (seen mainly on the cover page and on my side bar). I also themed each family on a separate page, for instance, I used mainly Helvetica on the cover and ITC Franklin on the first spread. Overall, I made sure that the typefaces were readable but fun in order for them to go with the classy news centered automobile magazine that “The Fifth Gear” is.

Side bar information: http://www.freep.com/section/COL14

Article Information: Okrent, D. (October 5, 2009). The Tragedy of Detroit: How a great city fell—and how it can rise again. TIME: Special Report. Retrieved November 1, 2009). P. 26-34.

Photos: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Economy/story?id=6373992&page=1

http://www.autofans.be/sites/default/files/images2/bmw_5_series.jpg

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/11/21/klobuchar_auto_bailout/

http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Uploads/Graphics/171-0802112216-closed-factory1.jpg

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2008/12/1/1228149609552/Gallery-US-car-industry---001.jpg

http://nowaday.biz/wp-content/uploads/detroit_02.jpg

http://detroitrhetoric.net/Detroit_Landmarks_Website/Final/LinksPage.ht

Color Information: Pantone 2756 (Red)

Binta Jammeh: Extra Credit- Tom Kennedy

I had the pleasure of hearing Tom Kennedy, the former director of photography at National Geographic and former multimedia editor at the Washington Post, twice at the Newhouse School. Both times, he addressed key issues facing the medium of photojournalism and ways in which photojournalism can transition into the digital age.

With newspapers fighting to save their medium in the digital age, photographs are the first part of features that are cut out because they are expensive to shoot and to maintain. In order to save photojournalism and prevent photography from becoming non-existent in the newspaper world, Kennedy proposed that photojournalism move away from solely being concerned with still photography to incorporating multimedia. Kennedy stated that multimedia has the ability to allow photojournalists to tell stories with clarity and power. By adding in sound, sound/slide, or video technology, photojournalistic pieces will allow for the audience to connect emotionally with stories and issues that are far from their comfort zones and their own personal experiences. Multimedia photojournalism has the ability to add emotion and a voice to each journalistic piece that is explored. Multimedia journalism does not aim to replace traditional journalism, but it does aim to combine aspects of the digital age (video, sound/slide, etc) with aspects of the aging traditional media (text). Multimedia photojournalism has the ability to capture and control an audience in ways that traditional photojournalism/journalism has not been able to do as the line dividing the digital age and traditional media grows deeper. Tom Kennedy’s ideas for the future of photojournalism certainly seem promising, and I for one am excited to see if multimedia photojournalism can really take off and move traditional photojournalism into the digital age.

Week 13: Hierarchy

The Pita Pit website has a function where you can build your own pita and then find out the nutritious (or not-so-nutritious) value of your creation. The site has a very unique hierarchy. Instead of vertical, it's horizontal. There are 6 sections, and every time you click one of them, a new "slide" appears. It is in a logical order: first the pita style, then the pita (meat, eggs, etc.), then the cheese, then the toppings, etc. This hierarchy makes it easy to actually build your own pita! It's also really easily laid out, making sure even the most technology-unfriendly can handle it. The numbers of the slides are listed in black with a yellow boxed background, while the heading is in white. By keeping the same style for all headings, there is no way to be confused. When you actually click an item that you want, the little white bullet turns orange. This creates a new hierarchy...the items you choose stand out among the ones that don't. As we can see from the second image, the last "slide" includes a hierarchy telling you exactly what kind of pita you just made! The headings are in yellow and are in the same order as the tabs. This means the type of pita bread is first, followed by the pita, then the cheeses, etc. ANOTHER hierarchy (yes there are so many on this site!) is on the far right in red. This tells you the total carbs, sodium, protein, etc. that is in your pita. This is an easily readable vertical hierarchy of information, and changes every time you add or take away aspects of your pita.

Project Posting: Magazine

Magazine Rationale

I wouldn’t say that I’m a country music fan, but Taylor Swift is one of my favorite artists. I can’t get enough of her songs, and I think she is such a talented and beautiful artist! Not to mention...she’s younger than me! Taylor has become a hit sensation in the past few years, which is why I decided to choose an article all about her life.As much as she’s a superstar, she’s just a normal teenager. She has boy troubles, fights with her parents, and doesn’t eat healthy foods.

The Rolling Stone article from February 19, 2009 titled “The Very Pink, Very Perfect Life of Taylor Swift” by Vanessa Grigoriadis describes just this. That is why I chose the image of curly-haired, innocent-looking T.Swift for the cover of my magazine. I had all these flashy photos, but a picture of Taylor wearing jeans and a simple shirt fit her “normal teen” profile very well. I also decided to name the magazine “Spotlight” because that sounds like a teenage / pop culture magazine that people would buy in stores. I chose the font Present Black Condensed because the “S” is really distinctive, as is the rest of the font. It is anything but boring, and since it is pleasing to the eye, I felt it would be something that makes the magazine stand out. I made the background a coral color, to match Taylor’s lips. I actually used the eyedropper tool to get an exact match. It also matches the coral tint that it is in Taylor’s shirt, which is another reason I chose this photo. I cropped the photo to get rid of the white background using the pen tool in Photoshop. The purple color that is used for the title of the magazine plays off the dark color of the denim that Taylor is wearing. I chose the Marker Felt font for the small headlines on the magazine because it looks like hand-written and personal.
[I found this image on the “Fan Pop” Taylor Swift page. It was a part of the Skins.be photoshoot, but the photographer is not listed. Size: 1024 X 768 pixels.]

I chose the image for my first spread because it is very vibrant and strong. The red dress matches the red lips and the red fingernails. It also shows Taylor looking in the direction of the headline and deckline, which focuses the reader’s attention over there. I chose the font Zapfino for the headline because I felt the sophisticated-ness matches the photo. Again, I used the eyedropper tool to get a good red match for the color. The long x-height on some of the lower-case letters also mimics Taylor’s curls. The deckhead is in purple to match the bottom right of the photo and stand out a little. There is an image of a transparent inverse gray flower behind it, which plays off the flower on Taylor’s headband. There is also some purple in this image, which makes the deckhead stand out a lot. The deckhead is in Veljovic, a simple yet classic typeface. This is the same typface used in my pull quotes. I decided to make the byline on the first spread in Frutiger, the same sans-serif font used in the body text, because the other fonts on the page were distinctive and fancy. I was also trying to create unity.
[I found this image by searching google images on the large setting. It is from a photoshoot in the Notting Hill district. The photographer is not listed. Size: 2400 X 2274 pixels.]

The drop cap that begins the second spread is also in the Zapfino font while the body text is in Frutiger. I wanted to keep the consistency, and also make the first line stand out. I like how the first few lines of text overlap on the drop-capped “O”. The color of the “O” also matches the color of the box for the sidebar. This color also plays into the photo in the sidebar box. My favorite T.Swift song is “Love Story,” which is what I titled the sidebar. I repeated the Zapfino typface for the “headline” of my sidebar. Then I repeated the Veljovic typeface for the “deckhead” of the sidebar. I chose a plain serif font, StoneSerif, for the music listings in the I-pod. I thought it was appropriate to write about Taylor’s musical inspirations, especially since the article talks about how Taylor has been such an inspiration for others. I drew two headphones coming out of the I-pod using the pencil tool, and I think it creates some visual gestalt, making the reader work to see where the headphones are going. I felt the image of Taylor laughing on the bottom of this spread was appropriate because it shows Taylor as a normal, yet at the same time, famous person. It shows her as a lovable and giggly person.
[I found these 2 images on the gactv.com Taylor Swift photo gallery homepage. Both images were taken by David Vespie. The picture of her laughing was taken on June 5, 2008 at the CMA Celebrity Close Up series, hosted by Lorianne Crook. Size: 706 X 470 pixels. The image of her playing guitar was taken May 17, 2008 at the MGM Grand Marquee Ballroom. Size: 300 X 449 pixels.]

I used a Taylor Swift Got Milk? ad for the back of the magazine, because what young child doesn’t collect the Got Milk ads?
[I found this image by searching google images for Taylor Swift Got Milk? Ad. I had seen it before so knew it existed. Size: 1000 X 1349 pixels.]

I used leading of 12 point for the body text in my spread, and thus used a 12 point indent on the first line of each paragraph. I didn’t space between paragraphs in order to keep a flow for the story. The pull quotes are in a serif font, while the body text is sans serif. I felt this made them stand out a lot. Also, the quotation marks and a few key words are in red, while the rest is in black. Overall, I’m proud of my magazine, and think Taylor Swift would love to see how much time I’ve spent perfecting a story all about her!

Michael Boren: Hierarchy

The LA Times Web site has very clear hierarchy and is very easy to read. The layout of the main story with its colored picture on the left side of the page is the first thing that catches my eye's attention. This large picture also stands out from the black font on most of the page. That's exactly what the Web site's creators are probably going for. By starting out at the photo on the left side, my eyes easily navigate to the right side of the photo, where two other big stories align. Then my eyes navigate down to the stories from earlier in the day that are in smaller font. This eye navigation takes the reader through the top stories to the earlier, smaller ones, which is what a news Web site intends to do. The amount of white space on the page also makes it quite readable and easy on the eyes. At the top, all the LA Times's sections (such as news, sports, weather, etc) are neatly organized into a straight line with a black background. This stands out from the rest of the page, and by collecting all the sections, the Web site allows me to easily navigate from one area to the other in a quick amount of time. And as all news Web sites go, layouts have to be quick and easy for the viewer to read in this fast-paced news cycle.

Mag Project Posting (FLOATING REDO): Michael Boren

Choice of Story

I chose this story, because I wanted to art direct something about a band I loved. It’s nostalgic to reminisce about how good bands or songs from the past were, hence the name of the magazine.

I knew there would be plenty of pictures with Journey in performance, and the story visually described Journey’s performances. So, I used pictures of Journey in concert on the first spread and jump spread. The story also emphasized how the band was transitioning from one of Steve Perry’s to Arnel Pineda’s. I used this emphasis on my cover with, “the wheel in the sky keeps on turnin,” indicating that the band was still chugging along. The headline on the first spread of “we’ll be alright without you” also indicated that the band would still go on without its former lead singers. I used a timeline on the sidebar as well to underscore the story’s emphasis on how the band had changed. I wanted to use a story about Journey too, because their songs easily work for headlines and names. I used Journey songs for the text on the cover (wheel in the sky keeps on turnin’), headline on the first spread (we’ll be alright without you), deck head (worlds apart), and title of the sidebar (don’t stop believin’).

Choice of Typefaces

I wanted to use serif typefaces throughout most of the magazine so the cross strokes would differentiate the fonts from each other. The serif-like fonts also appeared older – and therefore more nostalgic – than sans serif fonts, which can sometimes appear more like they came off a computer. I used Dante MT Std for the magazine title, because of the stress on the various letters. The “Blink 182 Reunites!” text on the white railing has similar stress on its letters. The fancy “g” in the magazine title also gave the magazine more of an older, nostalgic look. I used a sans serif-like font for the magazine’s date, so it would be easily identifiable below the cross strokes of the magazine title. In between the title and Blink 182 text, I used the font of Flood Std for its rugged, paint job-like look. The rugged look of the text – like it had been there for a while but was still noticeable – connects with the story’s emphasis on how Journey had been around for a while and was still going. I angled the text so it would appear to be turning. I also angled it so it would flow down to the Blink 182 text on the white pole and take the reader down to the corner of the page to open it.

For the first spread, I used two versions of the same font (ITC Cerigo Std) for the headline and deck head so they could connect with each other. The strokes on the fonts extend out just as the lights extend their rays in the background. I used the same typeface in the drop cap, which connected the beginning of the story with its headline. For the pull quote on the jump spread, I used a more sans serif-like typeface to make it stand out on the page amongst the serif-like body text. I used a different typeface for the quotation marks to make them appear like actual, curved quotation marks. The name below the quotation mark was also a slightly different font, so the pull quote text itself could stand out the most. For the photo caption, I used a smaller serif-like font that was slightly different from the body, so the caption wouldn’t get confused for being the body. To describe events in my timeline, I used a thin, more sans serif-like font, so that the small font would be easy to read on the blue background (as opposed to small fonts with many cross strokes, which could be harder to read on the blue background). However, I used a more serif-like font for the sidebar’s title so it would easily identify what the sidebar was about, rather than blend in with the sidebar’s typefaces too much. I used Century Expanded for the page folios, because it had similar stress in its letters and the same looking “g” as the magazine title. The line identifying the writer and photographer on the first spread also had stress in its letters like the magazine title.

Images

1. Front Cover: The image has a resolution of 279 dpi. Its height is 11.8 inches and width 17.8 inches. I got the photo from the Bethel Woods Center’s Web site, and the photo was taken by the Bethel Woods Center group. I left some of the right and left sides of the photo out so the cover could mainly focus on the band members.

2. First Spread Picture: The image has a resolution of 240 dpi. Its height is 12.1 inches and width 18.2 inches. I found the photo on a Web site called Plokkers Global Forum, but the photographer is unknown. I increased the brightness from the original photo so the band members would show up lighter on paper.

3. Jump Spread Picture: This photo has a resolution of 173 dpi. Its height is 11.8 inches and width 7.8 inches. I removed a bit of the photo’s left, right and bottom sides from the original size so more text could fit on the jump spread. I found the photo on Wikipedia’s Web site, and the photographer was Dese'Rae L. Stage.

Choice of Colors

I used a black color for the magazine title to correlate with the black coats of the Journey band members. That way, the magazine title could connect to who the main story was about. I used white against the guys’ jackets to make Journey’s story stand out, and to make it readable against such a dark background. On the first spread, I used white fonts that connected with the round, white lights shining at the top of the background. I also put a slight blue outlining on the headline typeface to make it visible against some of the shining white lights.

The drop cap on the jump spread is the same color as the headline on the first spread, once again to connect and guide the reader into the body text. On the rest of the jump spread, I used the colors of purple and blue, because they correlated to the background of the main picture. A brighter purple was used in the sidebar’s title to easily identify what the sidebar was about. I also used a slightly different purple in the pull quote so that the pull quote could stand out from the other purple in the jump line and body text.

EXTRA CREDIT Opportunities

:: Post about Tom Kennedy’s talk to the class last Tuesday
:: Post about IRA GLASS event on Wednesday if you went
:: Post about Thursday night’s event with Tom Kennedy if you went
:: Post about the MoMA Bauhaus exhibit currently up if you go over the break

ALSO, here’s the NYT article that Prof. Taylor mentioned in class. Thanks also to Elana Bodow for posting on the blog before we even got a chance to bring it up in class!

Don’t forget about your outstanding blog posts. E-mail me if you want an account of what your record looks like for the semester.

ALSO, e-mail if you are unable to make class this Tuesday before the holiday.

Hierarchy: Week 13: Alyssa Hillman

For my ADV class, we have to actually manufacture an advertising and publicity plan for a certain brand. My team's brand is (RED) and this brand is the main focus on this Starbucks' (partner of RED) website.

Not only is Starbucks very heavily publicizing RED this holiday season in stores(for instance by donating 5 cents to the organization when a patron buys a holiday drink) it is also making it the focus of all of the other mediums.

I closed my eyes and when the website opened, and I opened my eyes, I was immediately drawn to the red (RED) advertisement. After this, my eyes were then brought up by the red star that says "wish" to the Starbucks logo. I then realized that not only do I now have a positive association with Starbucks (the charity reference and "wish") but the whole thing took less than two seconds. I then started to look at the different beautiful drinks (four pictures at the bottom) and then at the menu options.

I would say that this was a very smart design and it did work. It got me interested in (RED), gave a positive image of Starbucks and left me salivating over Peppermint Lates. It used color, text size, typography and placement to achieve all of these goals.

Magazine Project Posting

For my magazine layout I wanted to style it like a fashion magazine because I hope to work in the fashion magazine industry. I picked an article on Tavi Gevinson, a thirteen year old blogger who has recently gotten a lot of attention and been invited to a lot of the Fashion Week 2009 shows in New York City. I have looked at her blog myself, and the writing and analytics are very developed for a thirteen year old. When I searched for images, I found great editorial images that were shot for Pop magazine recently. Also, I wanted to include some of Tavi’s photos from her blog of her looks that she posts. In addition, I saw images of her being interviewed and with famous designers on her blog so I decided I could incorporate that into a side bar.
I wanted to target my magazine to a sophisticated fashion conscious audience. For the title I just used my first name backwards, which looks like a polished French word. I had the “A” in the title bleed off the page and made it larger than the rest of the letters, having them line up with the bridge in the letter. The word “magazine” fit so neatly under in the gap that was left so I put it there with a contrast typeface. I put the headlines of the magazine in transparent white boxes that were aligned geometrically for the sophisticated look I was going for and made all the type black. I realize that in the print version the boxes are too light and wish I had printed it out again with less transparency so the white would be brighter and the black text more visible against the background.
For the headline of the first spread I played around with different typefaces to get the look I was going for. I wanted “Style Savant” to be more elegant than the rest of the type to indicate change. The color theme I use for the text and sidebar match the photographs I chose. I wanted to emulate innocence yet sophistication, in reflection of Tavi. I continued the use of the transparent boxes and geometric linearity in the layout of the spreads to coincide with the cover. For my side bar, I arranged a pattern of lense flares that I generated in Illustrator and pulled into inDesign. For my folio I kept it very simple, and kept the same typeface for “Ailime” to keep the magazine identity. What took a lot of time was arranging type, and lining and sizing everything up correctly. The whole layout was based on my target market and the essence of the article.

Magazine Project Posting | Mitchell Franz

Design Strategy:

For the magazine project I was torn between several ideas. As a photographer I wanted to create my own custom imagery for the project, but was still unsure. Originally, I was going to do the Dinosaur BBQ, but after realizing I needed more time to shoot there, I decided upon Boeheim’s 800th win. I photographed the portrait of Boeheim during media day this past year and shot the game at the Carrier Dome the night he won. My mine and really only design strategy is big pictures. I like simple effect and the cleanness of one big dominant photo and that’s it. With my opening spread on the right page, I tried to leave it very open and use the white space. In all spreads, I worked to achieve that there was a visual eyeline from the photo to the story.

Choice of typefaces:
For my sans serif font and for my headlines and such I chose Frutiger because it allows my magazine to be simple yet not so serious of a sans serif font. For the body copy and the caption I used Berkeley Old Style. I am in love with Berkeley Old Style. It has many characteristics that speak to me. It is one of your top ten fonts, but it also is easy to read and is classy to say the least. Avenir is used sparingly for bonus things here and there, but rarely overall.

Color:
I used color four times in the magazine. Every time I pulled the color from a nearby color source in a photograph. Once in the Magazine Flag, another in my headline, another in a pull quote and finally in my sidebar.

Project Posting- Magazine: Taylor Miller

The story I did for my magazine was the article that appeared in Rolling Stone about the comeback of Britney Spears. I remembered reading it when it came out and I loved the article as well as the pictures included. I am a really big fan of hers, and it was great seeing her on the cover again of a reputable magazine, especially since Rolling Stone's February cover of the same year was dedicated to her downfall.

After reading the article, the main point that I got was, Britney is back. She went through a really bad period in her life, but it's done with. That's what gave me inspiration for the "To Hell and Back" theme, which I also carried through with the pictures. I knew a lot of her photo shoots well, but as I was looking through pictures I couldn't really find any that portrayed the idea I had in my head. I wanted pictures that were really warm, and almost hellish looking, representing the Britney of before, and then I wanted some cool temperature pictures contrasting that and showing where she is now. I then stumbled upon some outtakes from her 2003 album cover shoot and found the perfect image: a strong Britney, on top of a mountain, with what looks like hell behind her. It's a very strong visual, and I think it captures exactly I was trying to say. For the cover image, I actually chose an outtake from a 2001 Rolling Stone shoot that wasn't used in the magazine. I really like it for a couple reasons, but the main being that she looks really innocent and raw in it, which I feel like is how she is right now.

The pull quotes I chose were actually quotes from her documentary that she made last year but were included in the article. I found that the one quote where she said that she had been to both sides (happiness and tradgedy) really spoke about the theme I was trying to play, again the heaven and hell thing. That quote really stood out, so I decided to play it up and make it really big so it would catch the readers eye. I also decided to include the quote about shaving her head because even though it was two years ago, people still have this conception of her as being crazy, and I thought it was cool that she owned up to it, admitted she was in a rough time in her life, and that she's moving on with her life.

The sidebar I chose to include was a timeline of the year 2008 for her, since I think it was such a remarkable year. Here you have this fallen popstar in January 2008, she's being put under psychiatric hold, gets her kids taken away, and then 11 months later she has the #1 single in America and the #1 album in America. I felt it was important to include because people still give her a lot of crap for her past, but for me I thought it was a huge accomplishment and that it should be recognized in the magazine.

Project Posting-Magazine

The story that I chose came from Sports Illustrated Kids Magazine. I’m a big  Jorge Posada fan and the article has actually hung on my bedroom wall since it’s publication in 2003, so forgive it’s rugged appearance! 

As for the typefaces, I used several. My main body text is ITC Berkeley Oldstyle. I chose this because it was my favorite of all the typefaces that were listed in class as the best typefaces for body text because it’s readable and clear. The magazine nameplate was another story. I wanted something easily readable, but also something that stood out on the page and could be versatile enough to be used on several different magazine covers, instead of just on the one I designed. This font is Strayhorn MT Standard Extrabold Italic.

The type I used for the story name on the front cover of my magazine is Penumbra Std. I chose this typeface because it is simple yet eye-catching. I also think it serves well colored white against the black background of the photo. The typeface that I used for the deckhead is Optima Regular. I also put the deckhead in capital letters because I feel it makes the Optima typeface more masculine, since SIKids is a male-targeted magazine.

For the one caption that I did include, located on the second spread, I used the font Helvetica because it was a clear distinction from the body text. Helvetica is a sans serif, while Berkely is a serif. I used the same logic when deciding typeface for the pullout quote, as well. That font is Goudy Sans. The last typeface decision I made was for the sidebar. I used Frutiger Std Bold Condensed because it was a sans serif and was bold, so it stood out against the dark colors of it’s background.

As for colors, I used black for the main body text because it is easy for the eye to read. I used white for the type in my deckhead, which was a hard decision for me. Because of the baseball diamond lines, some of the type is unreadable in the deckhead, but the text stands out much more in white than black, so I decided that the unreadable text was worth it. Lastly, for the sidebar I used colors pulled directly from the picture next to it. The blue comes from Jorge’s vest and both grays from his jersey.

Jen Brotman- Magazine

Story

I chose to do Barbie’s 50^th anniversary for my story because after watching a documentary on Barbie, I realized the popular culture phenomenon behind her. The article I chose looks back on the past fifty years of Barbie. I felt that she could be fun to art direct because she has never really been art directed in a magazine before, but she is just as well known as other individuals on magazine covers. I thought it would be fun to do a different kind of cover girl. I felt that this story would be in a young female interest magazine, which is the type of magazine I like to read. I also wanted to do a timeline because that would give me a nice horizontal aspect in my design to break up the visual flow of my page and create emphasis. I also wanted to escape boundaries in some areas. I used a Barbie shoe instead of a drop cap and placed it slightly outside the grid to break out of the established visual flow. I also used a pull quote to tie together the horizontal aspects and the escaping boundaries.

Typeface

I chose Eurostile Lt Std Bold for my magazine typeface. I used it for the name of the magazine, the date, the cover line and the folios. I think it is a simple, legible, sans serif that works in larger sizes and smaller sizes, which is important in the magazine. For my headline, pull quote and timeline header I used Bell Mt Std Bold Italic. I thought it was very feminine and similar to the Barbie logo. I used Century Expanded for my body text because it worked well with my headline font but had enough contrast. For my timeline and side bar as well as my byline and deck head I used Frutiger Lt Std Bold. It created contrast with my body copy and catches the reader’s eye for breaks on the page.

Color

I used Pantone colors for my magazine because the Barbie pink has a designated pantone color, Pantone 219. This pink was used for my magazine title, my headline, my pull quote, my timeline and my sidebar. I bought a Barbie doll with pink clothing to use for my pictures to work with the whole Barbie pink idea. I used Pantone Yellow 012 for the cover of my magazine and my side bar because it gave a nice opposite color to the pink. I also used Pantone 292 for my opening spread because it worked nicely with the pink and I tried to match Barbie’s eye color. It makes Barbie stand out because she is warm colored and the blue is a cool color that drops to the back. I used Pantone Warm Gray 2 for the rest of my headline, byline and deck head because it was a silvery gray that came out of the Barbie’s outfit on the opening spread and it worked with the pink.

Magazine Project/Elena Carroll

Elena Carroll- Magazine Rationale

I chose a feature article of Natalie Portman written by Rebecca Ascher-Walsh in the LA Times. Natalie Portman is a very intelligent, interesting and creative person whose acting I admire. I love the movies she has done, and find her edge and liberal views fascinating. The article emphasized her new approach to acting, and working with her emotions to tap into emotions for roles. The article also discusses and more grown-up and darker side that is not often showed by Natalie Portman. Since the article emphasized her stronger side, I chose images that demonstrated a darker and edgier side. I picked all of the images from the Internet from previous photo shoots she had done for other magazines.

For the typefaces I chose mostly simple and fashionable fonts. I wanted to create a high fashion magazine, and to emphasize the sophistication I used Bodoni for the majority of the titles. The title of the magazine, MUSE, is done in Times. After numerous attempts in different fonts, Times looked the best, and portrayed high fashion and sophistication the best. For the pull quotes I used Adobe Caslon Pro, and for my body text I also used Times Roman to stay consistent with the title. Although, I realize Times is a trite font, it made the text readable and familiar. The contrast between san serif and serif fonts also seemed to go nicely together. The font on my first spread is Helvetia Neue, to contrast the Bodoni, and to match the modern picture and contemporary picture of Natalie Portman. For my side bar I also used Helvetica Neue, and Century Gothic to contrast the Times and obviously stand apart from the rest of the text.

For the magazine I used very basic colors since most of my pictures were in black and white to emphasize her more adult self. Black and white also adds a sense of sophistication. To go along with this scheme, I used a lot of gray scale and gradients. I used 75% gray for the pull quotes, and I used a gradient for my first spread. I also used 75% gray for my drop cap. For my side bar I used the CMYK, C=0, M=0, Y=0 and K=100. I used the red to match with the red shoe shown in the lower part of the sidebar. I wanted the entire magazine to look elegant and edgy, while still captivating audiences to read the entire article. The pictures I used are taken from the URL sites below.

http://media.photobucket.com/image/gucci%20ads/ajbar7/fashionising/seven/gucci1.jpg

http://i39.tinypic.com/almg5t.jpg

http://blog.geertbollen.be/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/war1.jpg

file:///Users/student/Desktop/natalie-portman-4.jpg

http://www.awardsdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/NataliePortman.jpg

http://www.inhabitat.com/wp-content/uploads/natalieveganshoes1.jpg