Week 10: First Two Magazine Spreads

The next part of our class involves the collection of artwork into a magazine. Our task is to create a 40-page magazine using Adobe In-Design. After the pages have been made using In-Design, the files will be sent off to an actual printer where an actual magazine will be created. This magazine will be the major focus for the rest of the semester.

While we are using In Design to actually build the magazine, some research went into choosing exactly how I wanted the magazine to look. There are many types of magazines out there; be they for art, technology, reading, or photos. Since I am not an art major, I realized that I did not have a lot of artwork to make a full-blown art magazine. What I am able to do, based on my history of writing and blogging, is creating plenty of text for a periodical.

Recognizing this, I decided to make the text an important part of the magazine. I looked at various magazines to get some ideas together, and then started the project by making my first two spreads.

My photo trace is the pinnacle of my small "body of work," so I used it as my initial article. The image, based on feedback from others, speaks volumes, so I decided to give it a full page. I realized that it needed to be accommodated by text that would draw the casual browser into the actual text.

Therefore I used not only the different type faces that were available to me, but I used other tools that are often seen in credible periodicals: a section heading to imply the focus of the article, focused images that show the detail of the work, a sub-title that gives more information about what the reader should expect, and pull-quotes that were relevant and interesting.

Using these devices, my attempt was to create a concept of a "professional magazine." Whether or not my magazine will be considered to be professional remains to be seen.