Type & Grid//digitalising layout

To start off with i had to decide on a layout that i liked the most, i couldn't decide on one so i picked three and i will decide my favourite once done the three designs!
To start with i had to measure off the sizes of the type on my thumbnails to then scale up to the correct size. I have measured my thumbnail and its roughly a6 size, so i will x4 any measurements.

 I scanned the page in and took the elements from it that i needed to create the new page layout.

Scanned in image of the magazine page with the elements of the design that i need to create the new one, i scanned this in at 300dpi to make sure it still kept the detail within the images.

highlighted areas which i needed to extract for the new layout.

taking all the background away just to leave the text which i will use in the layout.

i copied it over into illustrator and live traced it, to turn it into a vector, this will allow me to scale it to any size, once i have measured the right size off my thumbnails.

image of the bike for the layout. i adjusted this in photoshop, by using the levels and brightness and contrast. i also corrected the tone, using auto tone.

Again i edited this in photoshop, using the same tools as the one above to get it something like a decent image for the layout.

After prepping all the images and getting everything sorted i started on making the layouts in indesign

First i made the grid which was 7 columns with a 5mm guttering. The margin was 10mm each side. The guides are for the page numbering.

From this i laid the smaller grid back under my thumbnails to see where each part laid on the grid to then transfer this across to the digital version.

after creating the layouts i then added the page numbering and made sure everything was laid right on the grid.

my favourite is the top one, i think as a whole the page layout fits together more, the second one is close by but i just don't think the image works that well within the layout, the placement of is isn't the best/there isn't a lot of room for it to be in the layout.

From the first one there is a couple of things id like to change to make it better, i don't like the sub heading being on an angle below the heading, i think it looks out of place and the text on and image is too high it needs to be brought down the page more to centre it more within the space.

moving the sub heading around, i think this looks better but still looks our of place, it isn't working within the layout or with the title.

Final spread, everything on here connects together well, it all flows throughout the page and i am happy with it, i think i have improved this a lot from the original layout. It now looks a lot cleaner and more sleek, it looks like it has been designed with thought. 

Comparing the two spreads:

From the black and white version above i have now added colour, using the yellow and blue from the original article

I think this has made a big difference to the article, it seems to have more life to it now and it makes me want to read it more. But looking at this now it isn't balanced because the yellow and baby blue have been used which are pretty light colours the article body copy stands out more which isn't working right, so I'm going to play around with that.

After adjusting the text to grey this made the article balance out more but now the picture stood out too much.

With this i have taken the opacity of the picture down by 10%, on here you can't see that much of a difference but when its the actual size there is a difference, reducing the opacity slightly has just taken the edge off the picture reduced those 100% blacks in the photo slightly just to lift the picture and make it sit better within the article. 

This is the final article above.

D&AD Rain//Final Poster to Submit

This is the final poster which i am going to submit to the competition, from the previous posters i have used my feedback from the crit to make changes to the design. I have got rid of the rain drops at the side as they were unnecessary to the design and distracted from the main illustration in the centre. I have revisited the colours on the edge of the raindrop and the headings - this resulted in changing the text colour and dotted line colour to make all in keeping. 

The only thing i haven't done from the crit was to introduce another brighter bolder colour to the illustration which was to highlight the area it was talking about, but because this poster has all three on it looked out of place having the colour repeated 3 times within the illustration, so i decided to stick with the original look. 

Printed version of my final D&AD poster.

Life Lessons//initial designs

Music is life

 This is the initial illustration for this design, using the music note instead of actually saying music i feel makes it better and adds to the design, so its not just all type. There will be a background to this but i haven't decided the colour yet.

Its the little things that count

Be cool, Be calm, Be brave, Be wise, Just Be

Life is a story make yours the best seller

Two heads are better than one

Think now draw later

I like the ones with the pencil straight as i think the angled ones look off centred and don't really work well together. Out of the coloured versions i like the one with the white background on the type. I think this would work best for digital print, just because of the colours and for the pencil i used blending modes so it will be quite hard to screen print it.

follow your dreams

This design is going to be either screen printed or woodblock i think probably woodblock, so this is just a preview of what it would look like, obviously the font may be different dependant on what wood block lettering there is, but i want this sort of style. I will still use these colours, variation between the colours will be taken into considerations.

time doesn't wait for anybody

I like the one with the colour on best, this would defiantly be for digital print.