Exercise 2: Grids in Layouts

In this exercise, we were asked to design two different double-page spreads to feature two short stories for placement in a magazine. As a long fan of the story, I decided to select The Wind and the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. This beloved classic is both playful in its appeal to children through animal protagonists, yet also classic through its wonderful writing. I chose to highlight this distinction through my two design layouts. 

My first concept (above) is called “Playful”. Through the use of whimsical illustrations, decorative type, pastel colours and dynamic colour blocks, I wanted this layout to immediately appeal to the child at heart. The low-opacity yellow block provides layers of interest with the illustration, and allows your attention to follow the line towards the start of the story. As the story draws you in with details of their small-sized worlds, so does the text layout by beginning and finishing each page with quirky, narrow text blocks.  The asymmetrical placement of the illustrations emphasizes their off-beat nature, and creates a flow through the story. 

 

My second concept is called “Refined” and takes inspiration in reviving the modern adult’s love of this classic story in a clean, minimal way. The design hinges on the engaging paper-cut illustrations, which entice you to look deeper and deeper into the circles of leaves. The first page, clean and fresh, is balanced nicely by the 3-column grid of text, again balanced out with another pleasing illustration. The simplicity of the sans serif title, as well as of all of the graphic elements, provides a sense of fresh modernity.

 

While I wholeheartedly love the clean and pleasing look of the second concept, I would select the first spread because I think it more strongly engages the reader in terms of flow, and immerses them in the quirky nature of these talking creatures. 

 

Fuck You/I Love You: Illustrated Zine Research + Thumbnails

The group in my Applied Design class came to the conclusion that doing a zine on the theme of the Fuck You/I Love You dichotomy would be extremely fun. To push it further,  we are each doing the expressions, and corresponding illustrations, from the perspective of different countries.

We decided to take inspiration from Sarah Ball’s Flip-o-storic book for how the book will be built ( with the lettering at the top and the illustrations at the bottom.) 

My portion of the zine will focus on Japan and Hawaii (Polynesia).

For the Japanese spread, my inspirations include:

Typography

Illustration

Inspiration for the Hawaii Spread Include:

Typography

Illustration/Icons

Zine Style Inspiration for Both:

I really love the character and quirkiness showing through in this assortment of Illustrated zines (see my last wordpress post for more zines that I find inspirational).

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  The Real and the Unreal People (Justo Cascante III)

  

  Round the Way (Maya Hayuk)

  

  Untitled Zine (Hattie Stewart)

  

  Doobert Life Issue 1 (Michael C Hsuing)

  

  Bottom of the World (Ken Davis)

  

  Nice (Kelsey Dame)

As far as my thumbnails, here are the ones I have made so far:

Illustration Zines

While researching zines (see: small-circulation of mostly self-published original or appropriated text/images/photos), I’ve become pretty enamoured with illustration-specific issues.

Here is a list, in particular order, of some of the inspiring volumes I have come across (through my vigorous internet-ing):

• Ben Newman’s Ouroboros:  I particularly love Newman’s bold, bright graphics, but the story is also very thoughtful and intriguing. Entirely without words, this story is brought to life through juxtaposing grotesque violence with absurd comedy and philosophical interjections. 
• Devon Smith’s Imaginary Lovers: Of a totally different level of production and emotion is this quirky, endearing take on the “what-ifs” of missed connections. That handsome stranger on the bus that you imagined a day-dreamed a future with? Smith explores such daydreams with charming illustrations and side-bar captions. 
• Julia Pott’s I‘ll Go Where You Go: My love of Julia Pott’s illustration is vast- I love the instantly loveable creatures that she creates (they remind me of hipster Wind and the Willows’ characters). When I discovered that she also made a zine, I was doubly excited. This zine combines the animals with romantic foibles, and it could not be cuter or more relatable. 
• Borrow Suitcase (vol.1): This was a collaboration of 27 artists, putting there take on the concept of packing, travel, and a voyeuristic peak into the personal lives hidden in a stranger’s suitcase. 
• Sian Beeton: This Hair zine was created in only a few hours, but I love the simultaneous simplicity of the design and complexity of the illustrations. I also think the transparency on the front page is brilliantly enticing. 

Inspiration! With that, I’m off to work on my own zine experiment~

Personal Yearbook Spread Assignment

As an exercise in Applied Design, our class was asked to go through a thumbnail process and arrive at two solutions to a 2 page spread documenting ourselves.

After the sketching process, these were the two layouts I decided upon.

No.1: This solution uses pink and blue ( I love bright colours), and relies on balance and illustrated icons, which I am also a frequent user of. All elements are evenly spaced out in terms of attention and focus. Because of my background in the sciences, I am a big proponent of clear lists and organization of information. In this spread I tried to capture that ideal with an almost infographic approach to the problem, attempting to minimize text and employ icons as often as I could.

No.2: This design is not as cute, and has a more dramatic layout, with the portrait and travel elements blown up to a larger size for pulling attention in a more exaggerated fashion. Despite initially loving the first layout, I decided on this one as the final design because it created a better flow. I especially enjoyed blowing up the icons for Montreal and Vancouver, because of the sense of movement the dotted arrow created. Ultimately, easy communication is the most important thing to me, and this layout was the most effective in this sense. Again, I used circles as the main design shape because I find them very visually inviting and easier to work with. Colour still plays a role, but I attempted to make it more muted than in the first design.