After conducting some previous background institutional research in my spare time I noticed within the majority of TV listings maagazines that they added a writers review box to accompny the article. This was to give an independent perspective to the programme/documentary that had been wrote up about in the spread to entice the reader to watch that said show more by the lack of bias in the opinions of the professionals and give a seperate view on the matter. Since I had adjusted the layout of my text quite significantly I had a wide scope of room to work with on the right hand side of the page, this would easily allow me to insert my desired revew box without causing any obstructions. I copied and pasted the already completed draft from a microsoft word document and positioned it at the top of the dpcument, this gave me space to work with as I was tempted to add another image from the documentary or a photo of the writer to accompny this seperate piece of the spread.
As can be noticed here I added a few minor details for the writer box, including a title to it and the name of who was giving their personal opinion on my documentary. This personalised the whole review so the reader could identify them as having a name rather than being an anonymous person, allowing them to connect with the author. I re-positioned the text to the bottom of the page as I was unhappy with where it was situated at the top, a noticeable difference I recongnised was how the empty space had been drastically reduced to less then half of the page, I felt this benefited me as a smaller image would look more professional and authentic like a true magazine spread.
At this stage since I was content with how the text was evenly distributed throughout the third page of the spread I focused my attention back to developing essentially one of the most important elements of my article - the headline title. I have already stated many posts ago in my rationale I wanted an eye-catching dominant text that would instantly grab the audiences attention, I needed to gain this interest in the vital few seconds of them looking at this article as this would determine whether they would continue reading it or move on. Before I experimented with colour palettes I devoted my attention to gaining the appropriate style of font, that would con inside perfectly with the content of the article (i.e the theme of despair due to a mental illness) whilst also being appealing enough to intrigue the audience. I began by testing the 'Monofonto' font, one I was accustomed to as I had already trialled it out on my documentary poster - although it didn't fit there I was hoping it may on this article. The lettering of the words themselves are effective, my gaze is drawn to them in an immediate effect and they are bold enough to be distinguished and deciphered easily from a wide distance, so I presume the viewer would have no bother reading. My only concern is that it seems to focus only on drawing that desired attention to the beginning letter of each word rather then each individual letter themselves, I feel unity is needed between each single word and the font so far appears not to reflect that despite having many positive points.
I voiced my dilemma to my lecturer about the font and she offered her advice as to research the styles that are commonly used within mainstream magazines. I already had a copy of the Radio Times on my person as I had been using it as a reference point to deconstruct double page spreads whilst also gaining valuable insight into what techniques would be beneficial t use in my own article (such as the positioning of text, images, use of colour background palettes, drop caps etc) I discovered the Radio Times relied upon a specific font called 'Futura', which I wasn't hesitant to experiment with. I changed all of the wording into this style, instantly I could recognise the contrast between that and a similar double page spread I had viewed in the Radio Times magazine, the style of letters was identical and I knew I had found the correct font this company used. I was always partial to 'Furtua' as I had liked how it dramatised and gave a unique perception on the words in this professional article, it aided in getting the message across to the audience more efficiently.
Out of interest I placed the words of the title at different angles and levels to one another whilst still in the 'Futura' style. My lecturer had stated it would be of good intentions to manipulate the spacing of the title to see if it flowed more coherently or had a more dramatic effect if it was altered slightly and not just in a straight line to one another. I situated each word directly underneath each other, out of my own intentions I readjusted the size of the more significant words such as 'Eat' and 'Why' as it reflected the question more intensively and put emphasis on these words in particular, in a way this is a rhetorical question to the reader as they could easily question the statement 'Why Won't It Let Me Eat' - what drive or motivation would cause a person to intentionally starve themselves? However after all of this experimentation I did not agree with the layout of the title as it would not give me any space to add a drop line or kicker which I felt was very essential to the article, if i was to do so that would mean going through the lengthy process of adjusting the main body of text again which would disrupt the harmony I had within the article, it would also unbalance the writer review section on the third page which may have had to be moved or even removed from the article completely which is not what I desired so I decided in conclusion to follow my original layout for the title instead.
Before I made my final informed decision over the style of text that was to display the headline for my double page spread I decided I would highly benefit from selecting to use a new font in another trail and error procedure, this was to allow me to ensure I had correctly chosen the style that fitted the requirements I had explained in my rationale whilst also providing me with the opportunity to see if another font demonstrated these desirable qualities more efficiently then the one I was considering to use ('Futura') The name of the style displayed above is 'King' I had in the past practised with this in particular when in the construction stages of creating the headline for my documentary poster - in that attempt it had been rejected due to it incorrectly fitting the standards I had set (it had not been bold, dramatic or eye-catching enough to use) so I was hoping this may not be the case for the double page spread. Despite my optimism the inconsistencies were once agin revived and seen within this experimentation. For me it was too similar in structure to the 'Monofonto' I had tested in an earlier trial with it heavily focusing on amplifying the beginning letters if the word rather then incorporating the size into the entire structure - a major drawback as I want all of the words to imprint in the audiences mind as a lasting effect of the sincerity and seriousness the 'Why Won't It Let Me Eat' title reverberates. Furthermore the style was not in consistency with regular fonts mainstream magazines use and to me it would be unconventional to use a theme that had was not regular in the media industry, I got the impression my work wouldn't feel professional or convincing enough in a technical sense. Finally the lettering did not fit with the article itself, sure it had an almost 'skinny' element to the letters which personified the nature of the eating disorder yet I felt this kind of font would be more commonly seen on a web based forum or publication rather then a printed magazine article. For these reasons alone I am not convinced I will use the 'King' style for the title of the double page spread.
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