Magazine Layout Critique

This photo is from a website that gives tips and tricks to creating your own magazine layout. That link is: shutterstock.com/blog/master-pages-indesign-This blog post was created by Grace Fussell in January 8th, 2018. She focuses on how to use master pages in InDesign to create magazines instantly, as her blog title states. She gives different tips and tricks on how to make your magazine designs faster, easier and more effective. She also goes through the different tricks that are useful in Adobe InDesigns. This magazine layout is very sleek, and modern but also catches the readers eye with the in-depth photo on the left page.
Typeface
As you can see, I have circled “The Perfect Patty” which is an example of a sans serif typeface. We know this because sans are those without serifs on the ends of the strokes on each letter. The font and design of the lettering does not have any curves or edges on the word that says “The Perfect”. Although this is true, don’t be fooled by the part that says “Patty”. If you look closely, you can see that it is actually what we call an old style typeface. Oldstyles have a small curve where they meet the stem which is called bracketing. All the curved strokes have a transition from thick to thin as shown where the white line is under on the A, P, and Y in the word “Patty”.

Another typeface included in this magazine layout is called sans serif. This specific one shown in the picture above of the letter “B” has a very subtle thick/thin transition. The B has a very heavy thick and bold design and could also be identified as an old style like the other letters on the first page because of the edges on the B.

These two pages have a contrast of size in the texts. It is obvious that the B is a major contrast added to the “THe Perfect Patty” on the first page. The big B on the page grabs the reader’s attention away from the title page and the orange color also adds contrast as well.Although the “B” on the second page is about the same size as the letters in the word “Patty”, because of the color and the background change it adds a great contrast to both pages.
This photo on the first page is a great example of depth of field. As you can see, the patty is the center focus and the background is not in focus nor does it have any detail or focus. The depth of field is the distance between the nearest and furthest elements in a scene that appear to be sharp. In the picture, the patty is clearly the sharp image and the focus on the page while the background is plain and lets the patty have the in depth focus.

For these three photos that I took myself, I tried to mimic the overall original design by having a dark background and the main focus to be on the cookie sandwich, mountain dew, and glass of water. If the words above in the original photo were to be placed on these three photos, it would still match well with the original photo. There is space for the words on each photo that I took, therefore it is a great replica or similar photo overall to capture the depth of field from the original magazine page.

My first blog post-Think Design.

Hello, and welcome to my first ever blog post! Today I will be addressing a design from a website that actually specializes in photoshop design and creates wonderful images full of color, and principles of design including contrast, repetition, alignment, proximity, and color. The unaltered design started just in microsoft word and was then switched over to photoshop where the design came alive. The link for this design can be found at https://www.companyfolders.com/blog/55-cool-photoshop-text-effect-tutorials. This website is titled as “55 Ridiculously Cool Photoshop Text Effect Tutorials”. The companies main site name is called “Company Folders” and is a blog with tutorials on how to make cool photoshop designs. As stated in their blog, they are “the standard bearer of online folder printing delivering absolute quality infused with the design of knowledge of an advertising agency”.

Contrast.
This design shows contrast where the words are faded in the background of the design but then you can clearly see the bright gold letters to add contrast to the full image and make the big and bold work of “think” as the center of the design. The colors may be similar but the contrast takes over the overall design.
Repetition.
In this design, the repetition in the background is subtle but is clear and obvious throughout the design. The design is repeated through the whole background as it is circled in the image above.
ALIGNMENT.
They did a great job at keeping the design in straight alignment throughout the image. The smaller words on the top of the design and bottom of design are nicely aligned with the big word “think”. It helps keep the image focused and clear.
PROXIMITY.
The way that the design is formatted shows its proximity. The words and design in the background are placed together and show that they are connected as well.
COLOR.
Although there are limited colors in this design, the different shades give and analogous color scheme. The colors give the overall design a pop of color. Using the hughes of color in the design give the image a nice clear and crisp image.

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

  • Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
  • Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

  • Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
  • What topics do you think you’ll write about?
  • Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
  • If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.

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