Exercise: Bike Magazine (Graphic Design One page. 107)
For this exercise I looked at ‘Bike Magazine,’ which seems to be based predominantly on a two-column format. Where there are exceptions these are full-page images, full-page data tables or three column reviews. I was surprised to see the prevalence of quite large images, although given that much of it is about different bike models, I probably shouldn’t have been. The typeface throughout is serif, and variation comes from different weights and sizes.
I took the two-column grid and large photograph format and created five variations based on the headline, ‘You are what you eat.’ Although I had already noticed it in other exercises it was fascinating to see the different tones set by the layout, images and typeface choices.
- Fruit image, Sanserif heading and body text: Has a slightly neutral tone, and I would imagine the article to give me some broad information about the benefits of a healthy diet
- Fruit image, Serif heading and sanserif body, three column layout: gives a more formal tone and I would imagine would probably contain a science based approach to diet
- Burger image, sanserif heading, subheading and body text: I think this one is interesting in that I can imagine the article could equally be talking about the issues of junk food and obesity, or promoting veggie burgers, or gourmet burgers
- Burger and Filo parcel, text all sanserif: this could be a comparator piece between junk food and fine dining, or extoling the virtues of the variety of English cuisine. I could imagine this in something like Good Housekeeping
- Filo parcel, script and serif heading, subheading and body: lots of white space and the cool blue tones speak to me of fine dining. I could see this as an article talking about a particular restaurant, dish or ingredient in glowing tones
It is really helpful to see how even small changes can change the tone and possible message a design is communicating. This is both rewarding and a little daunting, in that it can feel a bit overwhelming when faced with so many possibilities. I suspect this highlights the importance of a clear brief and good relationship with a client.