Exercise: Lorem Ipsum (Graphic Design 1, pg.99)
Select one of the designs from your research that you think works. Using Lorem Ipsum dummy text try and copy the layout and design as closely as possible. Having completed your first example try another one. Make notes in your learning log.
I looked at two examples from my research so far; the Time Magazine article ‘Two Hermiones’ and My Cat ‘A Changing Nature.’ I don’t think I was complacent about this exercise but it certainly seemed more difficult than I had imagined. Given the number of variables, from font size and typeface to alignment and leading, it took some time to try and get something resembling the original article. I’m not sure I was entirely successful in achieving absolute copies (for example, I couldn’t find the right typeface for ‘A Changing Nature’s’ header) but it did give me a valuable insight into layout choices.
Having achieved an initial copy for both articles I then experimented with different layouts and it was very interesting to see how even subtle differences can have an impact on legibility and readability.
Two Hermiones:
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- Hermione copy
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- Hermione justified leading
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- Hermione left aligned
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- Hermione justified
I created several versions from the copy:
- Justified all lines including heading
- Justified all lines, hyphenated, with adjusted leading
- Left aligned, ragged and hyphenated
The justified all lines with adjusted tracking initially looks very orderly and legible however it is not very easy to read, and in design terms the header doesn’t look right. I think the similar version but without adjusted tracking is harder to read because of the lack of white space. The left aligned version is for me the most readable, but again the heading and subheading do not work in design terms.
Changing Nature:
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- Changing Nature copy
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- Changing Nature justified all lines
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- Changing Nature rag leading hyphen
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- Changing Nature centred
I also created three versions for this article:
- Justified all lines
- Left aligned leading adjusted
- Centred
The left aligned version is quite close to the original but the subhead and text box items are justified. It is interesting to see that the different tracking makes this look more ragged and less legible. The justified larger text doesn’t work because of the additional white space it introduces. The justified all lines again looks neat but is harder to read, it is also easy to see the ugly white rivers that run through the middle of the columns. I did the centred version just for fun but it definitely highlights the issue of how layout can affect legibility and readability.
