2-pg Spread Feedback and Final Revisions

Changes

Before

After

After creating my final 2-page spread, I asked my family and peers about what they felt about my final 2-page spread. After taking their feedback into account, I changed some of my Final 2-page spread. I did this, in order to make my final 2-page spread more professional and attention grabbing. This final 2-page spread incorporates most of the feedback I was given, by my family and my peers. The first feedback I received was to add different fonts and font styles to improve the appearance of my 2-page spread. Besides images, I was told to add designs to give my 2-page spread the feel of an art magazine. I decided to take half of this feedback into consideration, as I changed the font for my Headline, from Open Sans to Rustic Printed. I also changed the font of my subhead from Open Sans to Sukar (Yes, that’s an actual font.) I did this, in order to give more personality to my 2-page spread, and make it look more artistic. The fonts I chose are sans serif fonts, as this type of font is used in many Art magazines, because of the power and definition it gives to the text. By changing my headline and subhead into a sans serif font, I am not only giving it more power and definition, but also increasing the impact of the text on the reader. Another advantage of using Rustic Printed and Sukar, is that it perfectly pairs with the font, Open Sans, which I used for my 2-page spread’s article. This pairing allows me to give a clean and modern body copy to my 2-page spread. Open Sans is a clean and modern sans-serif typeface that is especially designed for legibility across magazine, web and mobile interfaces.

Open Sans is excellent for any type of use. It’s incredibly readable in small sizes and also works great when printed in huge letters. It is also a well known and modern font that is being used more and more in art magazines. This is because of its simplicity, as it really makes the content easily readable and understandable. I did not decide to add the extra designs to my art magazine 2-page spread, as it would look too congested and unprofessional. This is because in most art magazines art elements are purposely kept to a minimum, so that the 2-page spread looks clean, organized and easy to follow. Also, adding the various art elements would distract the reader too much from the actual article, which would make the 2-page spread less appealing and informational. The second feedback I received was to try bolding the text to give it a more sophisticated look. I did not include this feedback to my 2-page spread as bolding the text made it harder to read and follow through. Also, the text looked very unappealing and blurry, it wasn’t looking clear at all. If I had added the bolding, then my article would be very hard to follow, and the reader would immediately lose interest in the magazine after looking at the 2-page spread. The third feedback, I received, was to add pull quotes to my 2-page spread, in order to make it more engaging and immersive. I was told to add them in separate areas, instead of including most of them in my article, which uses a much smaller text. I was also told to make my spread constant, by keeping the paragraphs the same size from the start. I decided to include this feedback to my 2-page spread, as it really helped me make the spread more professional and attention grabbing. I decided to add the pull quote on the right side of the spread, so that it is immediately read by the reader, which will quickly insert a sense of curiosity within them, telling them to read the main article. My pull quote includes the following text, “I want to bring joy to my audience.” “I want to give them hope.” I specifically chose this quote because it sends a very powerful message, and is quick to attract the reader’s attention. Pull Quotes usually provide a different dimension to an article in a magazine, making it look more interesting. Quotes also aid in conveying the story to the reader, and if coupled with images, become potent. Magazine designers either have a quote verbatim from a portion of the body copy, or they perhaps summarize a few points of the body copy in different words and have them as a quote or an excerpt. Ideally, the quotes or excerpts should be in a font that is different from the font in which the body copy has been written. This is one of the main reasons why my pull quote has an italic font, rather than a bold, regular, or light font. The font choice really makes the pull quote stand out, and makes the 2-page spread look very professional. I also made all of my article/text paragraphs the same size, since if they were all different, the body copy would have disoriented the reader, and the flow of which the article is to be read, would be broken. This would immediately break the immersion/connection that the reader has with the article and they would immediately lose interest in the magazine. By making all of my body copy text the same size, I am avoiding this problem, and making sure that the audience is connected to my 2-page spread. The fourth feedback I received was to align the subhead “Breaking Reality: Digital Art” with my article text/body copy. I was also told to change the font of my headline,”Artists Of The New Generation”, in order to make the 2-page spread look cleaner and appealing. I decided to take this feedback into consideration as my subhead and body copy looked more professional, when they were aligned with each other, instead of the subhead being indented a little bit to the left. I also changed the spacing between my subhead and article text/body copy, as this gave the text more room to breathe, instead of looking congested and disorganized. If the subhead and article text were not formatted properly, then the reader would have been distracted by these discrepancies and would immediately lose interest in the article. I also changed the font of my heading and subheading. I changed the font for my Headline, from Open Sans to Rustic Printed. I also changed the font of my subhead from Open Sans to Sukar. I did this, in order to give more personality to my 2-page spread, and make it look more artistic. The fonts I chose are sans serif fonts, as this type of font is used in many Art magazines, because of the power and definition it gives to the text. By changing my headline and subhead into a sans serif font, I am not only giving it more power and definition, but also increasing the impact of the text on the reader. Another advantage of using Rustic Printed and Sukar, is that it perfectly pairs with the font, Open Sans, which I used for my 2-page spread’s article. This pairing allows me to give a clean and modern body copy to my 2-page spread. Open Sans is a clean and modern sans-serif typeface that is especially designed for legibility across magazine, web and mobile interfaces. Open Sans is excellent for any type of use. It’s incredibly readable in small sizes and also works great when printed in huge letters. It is also a well known and modern font that is being used more and more in art magazines. This is because of its simplicity, as it really makes the content easily readable and understandable. The fifth feedback I received was to re-read my article, in order to change the grammatical mistakes. In order to achieve this, I inserted my article into grammarly (a spell and grammar checker website), so that I could correct all of the grammatical errors present in the article. I also changed some of the punctuation and placement of text, in order to make the article text more direct and organized. This is very important, as if the article has grammatical errors, or is placed in weird positions, then readers will feel disconnected and disoriented from the text, which will break the connection between the reader and the article, causing them to lose interest in the magazine. So, in order to avoid this, I made sure that my article had no grammatical errors or weird positioning, so that the reader would be connected and immersed in the article the whole way through, without any disruptions. Lastly, the sixth and final feedback I received, was to move the text boxes a little bit to the left in order to align with the header. I was also told to decrease the size of the text, in order to allow space for blank margins, to make it look less packed. I took some of this feedback into consideration, as instead of changing the article text/body copy’s alignment. I changed the subhead's position to be a little bit on the right, so that it perfectly aligns with the text. I also decreased the size of my article by one point, as if I had decreased it too much, then the reader wouldn’t be able to read or understand the article properly. Also, if the text is too small, it often looks unappealing and blurry. If I had decreased the size too much, then my article would be very hard to follow, and the reader would immediately lose interest in the magazine after looking at the 2-page spread.

Summary 

My final mockup for the 2-page spread of my Art magazine includes the following magazine elements: Section/Running head, Headline, Caption, Subhead, Body text/copy, Pull Quote, Folios/Page numbers, and Byline. The section head of this 2-page spread is called, “Art Insider”, as the content present in the text, talks about the deeper meaning represented in the featured art pieces and gives a brief explanation behind their production. The section head is placed on the top of the 2-page spread, so that the reader can easily identify which category this article/spread is from. This gives the reader an opportunity to select which category is their favorite, and helps them locate their favorite article more efficiently and effectively. The Headline of my 2-page spread is called, “Artists Of The New Generation”. As, Michael Bors is a relatively young artist, who makes digital art, which is very different and unique from other art styles such as paintings or drawings. Also, digital art is a very new concept in the art industry, and everybody is using it nowadays, making it a famous medium for artists of this generation. The caption between my first and second image states, “Why do you think Bors makes his art digitally?” This is an interactive question for this 2-page spread. Its purpose is to keep the reader interested, and make them think, what the article was really about, and encourage them to indulge in deep thought. I choose to make the caption italic, so that the caption pops out more, than the other text included in the 2-page spread. The italic formatting, also evokes the emotion of connection, as the author/magazine designer of this 2-page spread, is trying to talk and connect with their audience, by using the interactive question as a medium for communication between the magazine designer/author and the reader. The subhead of my 2-page spread is called, “Breaking Reality: Digital Art” This is one of the coverlines that is included in my magazine cover. The subhead's purpose is to give the reader a glimpse of what the article is about, in this case, how digital art has changed the art industry and the ways an artist thinks. It is also included to make the article easier to locate for the reader, as the subhead is mentioned in the magazine’s table of contents, so that the reader can easily identify which page the article is located on. The body text/body copy of my 2-page spread talks about the articles featured and the deeping meaning behind them. It also gives a brief explanation of the production process behind the art pieces featured and talks about Michael Bors’ perspective on digital art, and how it has changed his thinking. The pull quote for my 2-page spread is located at the bottom of the right page. It says, “I want to bring joy to my audience.” “I want to give them hope.” I specifically chose this quote because it sends a very powerful message, and is quick to attract the reader’s attention. Pull Quotes usually provide a different dimension to an article in a magazine, making it look more interesting. Quotes also aid in conveying the story to the reader, and if coupled with images, become potent. Magazine designers either have a quote verbatim from a portion of the body copy, or they perhaps summarize a few points of the body copy in different words and have them as a quote or an excerpt. Ideally, the quotes or excerpts should be in a font that is different from the font in which the body copy has been written. This is one of the main reasons why my pull quote has an italic font, rather than a bold, regular, or light font. The font choice really makes the pull quote stand out, and makes the 2-page spread look very professional. Lastly, the folio/page number and bylines are located at the bottom of the last image or the bottom-right corner of the 2-page spread. The folio/page number is, “9” , the byline is called, “Artifice” which is the magazine’s name. I chose number 9 for my folio/page number as it is the same page number, I have included in my table of contents for this 2-page spread’s subhead, which is called , “Breaking Reality: Digital Art” The byline of this 2-page spread is called, “Artifice” as it is the Art magazine’s name. Also, It is common for magazine productions to have the magazine name/brand as their own name, so that the magazine designer can easily give credit to them, without providing any unnecessary information.

Tools And Sources:

Art, Scholastic. “Jan/Feb 2022 Issues – Articles, Activities, and Videos: Scholastic Art Magazine.” Scholastic Art, Scholastic Art, 2 Mar. 2022, https://art.scholastic.com/issues/2021-22/010122.html.

C, Aditya. “Final 2-PG Spread and Elaboration of Choices.” Final 2-Pg Spread and Elaboration of Choices, Blogger, 12 Mar. 2022, https://adityachhabria.blogspot.com/2022/03/my-final-2-page-spread-mockup-this-is.html.

Franz, Laura. “Drop Caps: Historical Use and Current Best Practices with CSS.” Smashing Magazine, Articles, 4 Apr. 2012, https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/04/drop-caps-historical-use-and-current-best-practices/.

2India, Outsource. “10 Key Elements of a Magazine Layout Design - outsource2india.” Outsource to India, Outsource 2 India, 9 Mar. 2022, https://www.outsource2india.com/creative-services/articles/10-key-elements-magazine-layout-design.asp.

Canva, Canva. “Collaborate & Create Amazing Graphic Design for Free - CANVA.” Canva, Canva, 2013, https://www.canva.com/.