Project Four
Introduction: October 25, 2022
In this project, I will work to develop a feature magazine spread and instagram square in order to learn more about effective visual communication and how to evoke emotions typographically. I am really excited about this! For the project, I have chosen to feature a food museums! I think this topic lends itself to a very playful design and color palette that I look forward to exploring. InDesign is the software I have the most prior experience with. So, I am both nervous and excited that I am familiar with the software as that can be very helpful because I know more of the tools, but also that can be limiting as there is a way of using it that I am used to. However, it will be really cool to put everything we’ve done so far together and I’m looking forward to seeing how this project turns out.
Content Requirements (this is just a list of everything)
Feature direction / category: Art Exhibition/Social Impact
Name of the feature: Museum Shows Focus on Food
Article about the feature: Bread, Pastrami and Cocktails: Museum Shows Focus on Food by Jane L. Levere
Description of the feature
Museums throughout America have gained increasing popularity for exhibitions focusing on food, its history, and its role in building community. This feature looks at different food exhibits across America — from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the Baltimore Museum of Industry to your very own home. Learn about the many ways food, food service, and what we eat has shaped the modern world in this wonderful exploration at the intersection of art, food, history, and culture.
3 Keywords
delightful, artful, historic
Typographic System
- header: Temeraire Display Black 23 pt.
- sub header: Rough Love Regular 15 pt.
- body copy: Calluna Regular 10 pt.
- quote/call-Out: Temeraire Display Black 21 pt. or 26.5 pt.
- page numbers: Calluna Black 14 pt.
Color Palette
red, gold, gray
Imagery
Article : https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/21/arts/design/museum-food-exhibitions.html
Graphic Elements
frames, museum placards
Design Direction #1: October 29, 2022
My first idea for my design is inspired by artsy menus and collages. I really want to incorporate a sort of artisan or handmade feel to the piece just to make it look fun and interactive. I also want to play around with doodles and sketches in the piece to add a delightful energy — having fun with the boundaries between vintage and modern.
Illustrator Exercises: October 29, 2022
I tried my best with this exercise, but really struggled to reproduce the mouth properly. But, I tried my best and learned a lot about the pathfinder tool. In particular, I learned a lot about the ways different shapes work and present themselves in the software which was super cool.
This exercise was fun to try out! I had to zoom in very close, but not so close that everything turned too pixel-y which was complicated. All in all, it was really helpful to see how precise the pen tool can be.
Design Direction #2: October 31, 2022
As this exhibit is both artistic and historical, I thought it would be cool to explore a vintage aesthetic with sketches in a bulletin board style incorporated into the piece.
Design Direction #3: October 31, 2022
Because the feature is about food all over the US but a lot in New York, I thought it would be interesting to try and incorporate NY-style maps into the article’s visuals, using colors and funky graphic patterns.
Deliverable Final Design System: November 6, 2022
With feedback from my group, I decided to go forward with my first design direction. I edited the color palette to make it full of stronger primary colors, at the suggestion of my peers who were big fans of the pop-art-esque colors from my moodboard. I also edited my moodboard as I really want to emphasize the collage element in the design system that will work in tandem with hand-drawings. On the whole, my goal with this design is to hone in on the menu concept with a french, pop-art vibe to it, so emphasizing strong colors and images alongside the text.
Revised Design System: November 9, 2022
With feedback from Semina and my peers, I focused on revising two main things in my design system. First, I wanted to change the quote font slightly in order to better differentiate it from the body text. I chose a font with a heavier weight (Kepler Std Medium), so as to be slightly more distinct from the body text but still look cohesive. My hope is that with the addition of color as well as playing with font sizes, that this change will fit smoothly into the overall design.
The second thing I wanted to change was my moodboard. My peers pointed out that while the board made sense after I explained it, at first glance it is a bit hard to understand because all the ideas are jumbled together. So, in this version, I sorted the images into different areas that correspond to different design elements as to make it clearer what exactly I plan to do. The top left includes images that evoke the menu aesthetic that I aim to incorporate in my piece, then the middle left is all food sketches that I want to combine with the vintage/pop-art/collage style on the right. My hope is that this moodboard is much more interpretable because of the section divisions and clearer images.
Grid Exercise: November 14, 2022
I found this exercise to be super helpful as it was really interesting to see the way the grids align and the different techniques for displaying text. I also found the variation or sameness in the size of the columns to be a particularly interesting way of varying the dynamics of the grid layout.
Layout Sketches: November 14, 2022
Being completely honest, I struggled with my sketches. I hope I did the grid layouts correctly, but I’m not entirely sure. Nevertheless, I did my best and I really like the way some of these turned out (even if they may not be exactly in line with the grid; I really did try though!).
Column grid
For my first set of spreads (I accidentally did the third spread and the back page), I went with the column grid layout. I really wanted to play around with how the pages next to each other work together. For this set in particular, I really liked to concept of layering the images behind the text boxes as I think that often ends up looking really stylish in some magazines I’ve seen.
Modular grid
I struggled to understand how to go about this grid. Eventually, I resolved to play around a bit with layering as well as smaller blobs of text. I don’t really love these designs, but I still think they have potential.
Hierarchal grid
This grid was supper fun to play around with. I really like the concept of an image flowing across to pages as well as playing with vertical and horizontal grid space. All in all, I’m super excited about this design and can’t wait to play around with it.
Instagram Ads
For my instagram ads, I wanted to play with negative space as I think that tends to have a really eye-catching effect on the platform. For my first sketch, I want to alienate one the key features from the exhibit my article is about (this feature is the globe-like entrance to the “Food in New York” exhibit) and pair it with a quote from the article. For my second ad, I thought it would be cool to have like a quote from the article served on a plate (as the exhibit is about food) with negative space in the background (likely filled with a bold primary color). These first two really emulate the collage style I want to evoke in my spreads. Lastly, filling the ad with an image and layering a small quote on top of the image I think has a really bold effect (I was really inspired by The New York Times’ instagram). My goal would be to bring the viewer into the image to attract them to the story. I’m super excited to play around with all of these!
Digitizing Layouts: November 16, 2022
Iteration #1:
In this iteration, I really wanted to play around with overlapping text and images. Additionally, I want to make all these text boxes lay on textured paper (like menu paper) to give the article a really interesting feel. I really like the way this layout works, and it is the closest to what I originally envisioned for the assignment.
Iteration #2:
This iteration was super fun to play around with. I focused on the space between the text and the images, trying to play around with how the viewer reads the article. I really like the cover for this iteration, but I’m not entirely confident in my second spread. However, I think there is a lot of potential in this layout, especially once I add images and graphic elements.
Digitizing Instagram Ads: November 21, 2022
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With these ads, I kind of threw my original ideas out the window as they didn’t look how I envisioned digitally. These new iterations follow my new design system more closely as I made them together. The first aims to bring the idea of the gallery to the viewers mind, drawing them into the oddity of the frame in the middle of the painting and then reading the placard that contains the article’s headline. This one is my favorite as it really gets the message of the article across. My second ad, focuses on one particular exhibit from the article (“Food for Thought”) and aims to evoke questions in the viewer’s mind in order to have them look for more. This concept was taken from The New York Times and The Atlantic’s instagram accounts which often invite curiosity rather than give the article away.
New Magazine Iteration: November 21, 2022
I really struggled with trying to visualize my original design system mainly because of the difficult time I’ve had finding the kinds of images I originallly had in mind. So, I decided to try a new direction in which I hone in the concept of museums and galleries by using a paper texture like museum placards and some fun frames for the front and back covers. My biggest issue is figuring out how to add another graphic element in to play with the white space as right now some of the pages just seem a bit bland. I am hoping to incorporate more of my original design system ideas into the next iteration, but we’ll see what works.
Refining Instagram Ad: November 28, 2022
For my instagram ad, I took Kelsey’s advice and put a red tint on the background to demonstrate the focus on the food part of this painting and also to tie it into the red theme in my magazine layout. I really like the way this looks and I’m excited to get feedback during class!
Refined Magazine Layout: November 28, 2022
The biggest change I made to my layout is adding this cartoon background that I compiled in illustrator full of vintage food cartoons to give the layout a more playful feel and full up the white space. I think the fun of the cartoons contrasts nicely with the rectangular layout I have otherwise, and still fits with the theme of a gallery by adding a historical feel to the magazine. Additionally, I changed the front cover as to contrast a bit more with the back cover and give the feeling the viewer is looking a painting on a wall. Overall, I am pretty happy with this and like the contrast between playful and serious. However, I am a little concerned that the cartoon background is too distracting and I am still wondering if I should change the rectangles used for the pull quotes to something a bit more fun. I kept it the same here because I like the contrast, but I am definitely open to changing it.
New Instagram Ad Iteration: November 29, 2022
For this iteration, I just refined the ad. I made sure the frame was centered and I changed the font color for the headline. I also adjusted the tracking on the headline to make the ad more legible. I am super happy with how this turned out!
New Magazine Layout: November 29, 2022
For this iteration, I focused on trying to hammer home my design concept by changing the quotation graphic for the second and fourth spread. I added a frame to the quotes to continue the museum theme and added a yellow inner glow to the graphic to make the red blend better as a background to the frame. I also eliminated the really confusing collage I put together, as after further thought that just did not work smoothly with the design. Lastly, I added page numbers and made some small adjustments to the text boxes. On the whole, I’m super happy with the way this looks!
Refining Magazine Layout: December 5, 2022
During critique, the most common comment I got was that the red I had chose was a bit too bright and distracting on the pages with text. So, in refining my design, I changed the value of my red to a darker less distracting color that still puts emphasis where I want it to. I am a bit concerned that it is still too distracting, so I am going to ask about that in class today. Additionally, on page 4, I changed the red to be a third of the page rather than the entire thing which people thought was a bit overwhelming. I also played with the frames I use for pull quotes by cropping them to remove the drop shadow on the image, so that the only drop shadow on the page is on the body text. This was a suggestion from Kelsey which I think this really helps with the feel of the page, so there is not so much jumping out at the viewer. I also played with type size a bit. On page 1, I moved the first paragraph under the subheading since, in re-reading it, I realized it makes more sense there. Additionally, I lowered the point size of the entire body text just because it looked a bit too big on the page from 11 pt to 10 pt. I also upped the point size of framed pull quotes so they fit a bit better in the frame. That is still not perfect, so I am going to check in on that in class. Additionally, I just fixed any problems I noticed like on one of the pages there was a page number that was not entirely visible so I fixed that and I moved the quote on page 4 to the top to guide the viewer’s eye across the page a bit more naturally.
Refining Instagram Ad: December 5, 2022
People seemed to really like my ad design which I was super happy about! The only thing I changed here was making the headline a banner rather than a placard because I feel like that looks more eye-catching on a phone screen than a placard and it allows the text to stand out a bit more. Overall, I’m super happy with how this looks!
Updating Design System and Bibliography: December 5, 2022
I also updated my design system a little to reflect the changed I have made thus far. The biggest were updating my graphic elements and my color palette to reflect the new design concept. Further, I made a completely new moodboard which demonstrates the vintage gallery feel I am trying to go for in this design. Also, it emphasizes the red theme I want to bring out in my design.
Lastly, I included my bibliography here which credits all my images and graphic elements, as well as the article content itself.
New Iterations: December 6, 2022
Magazine: For this iteration of the magazine, I focused on playing with the pull quotes as well as adding photo credits and captions. I struggled a lot with the quotes as I tried to make them stand out but not too distracting. I tried so many different ways with new color interspersed throughout the words and even using outlines of the font, but ultimately this is the only way that felt like it worked. While I do think I am on the right track, I’m struggling to iron the concept out and feeling a little bit stuck.
Instagram Ad: Here, I just changed the font color to match the changed red in the magazine. Overall, I am super happy with this design!! I think it works really well with the magazine!
Design System: Here, I just updated my design system along with my new changes.
Bibliography:
Final Iteration: December 9, 2022
Final Magazine: For my final magazine spreads, I focused on fine-tuning the type hierarchy, playing with captions, and adding a final graphic element which I think pulls the whole spread together. In terms of type hierarchy, I adjusted the type size of my pull quotes to better fit the page. Enlarging it to 26.5 pt on pages 3 and 6 and putting it at 21 pt on pages 4 and 5. I also adjusted the text boxes to make sure there where no orphans (except on page 6 where that fits best with the text). I read through the article to make sure everything was included, and removed widows and orphans left in the body text and captions. However, the biggest change I made was adding a thin gray frame as a new graphic element on pages 3–6! I am so happy with this change as it is something subtle which keeps these pages from looking bland which was exactly what I had been searching for. I think it looks really great and carries out this food gallery/museum theme I have been designing for the magazine. I also I took a suggestion from Kelsey and moved the front cover photo credit/caption to the back cover and used the outer glow feature to make it legible. Overall, I am super happy with how this magazine turned out and I’m looking forward to everyone’s feedback in the final critique!
Final Instagram Ad:
For my Instagram Ad, I did not change too much but just made sure the type looked solid and I wrote my own description for the the feature, just because I feel like the original one I found did not do the article justice. I am supper happy with this ad as I think it works well with my spreads without being overly similar. Additionally, it aims to get the message of the feature across simply and intuitively, which is a tactic I think works really well on social media.
Final Design System:
Here, I just updated my design system to fit my new direction. I changed the sizing of the font typography to be in line with what’s actually in my article as well as the colors of the text. I added the new graphic element to my list of graphic elements. I also updated my description, which I rewrote to better suit the article. Finally, I added the gray from my new frame to the color palette I am using which includes the gold from the golden frame, the red I use in the text and cover of my magazine design, and the gray that is used in the new gray frames. On the whole, I am super happy with this new direction! While it is extremely different than my original idea, I think this looks way better!
Final Moodboard:
For my final moodboard, I updated the images to better fit with my new theme. It includes the gallery aesthetic I am going for along with the vintage photographs I use. I like how much simpler and cleaner the final moodboard turned out to be. It exemplifies the key thing I have learned in this project which is subtlety. In the beginning, I was trying to mesh together so many different ideas in a way that did not work with the content I have nor with the amount of text. In the end, it was a clean direction with subtle design elements that really pulled the magazine together such as the placard paper, the gray frame, and the type weights. All in all, this moodboard reflects the kind of sophisticated yet simple design that, in my opinion, works best for this feature.
Final Bibliography:
For my bibliography, I made sure all my sources were included and I also increased the quality of the file so it would be legible.
Reflection After Final Critique: December 13, 2022
This critique was super fulfilling to hear as people really seemed to respond to the details I painstakingly obsessed over for this magazine. The addition of the thin gray frame got a really fantastic response as it brought my project full circle by bringing in both the museum aesthetic and menu aesthetic I had originally wanted. People also liked the use of red which definitely has its ups and downs in the project, so I am glad it worked out in the end. I am so glad that my final design concept landed well, and I am very proud of how this project turned out.
On the whole, I learned so much about the strength of visual communication to pull a design together or completely hinder it. Going through all of these iterations really made me see the importance of subtle changes that play with the focal points of a design. I also learned a lot about the importance of developing a clear design direction as it helps drive the design forward. In the beginning, I had so many design ideas I wanted to try to incorporate that it ended up hurting my original designs. However, after I made my Instagram ad, I realized how much was possible to communicate with a few elements and small space. I was then able to translate that into my magazine spreads and stopped trying to force all the ideas I had, but just look at what the design actually needed. This led me to a final design system that, in my opinion, works beautifully with the article I have chosen.
This project was a lot of trial and error, but in the end it was incredibly fulfilling! I learned so much about what makes a design effective and the importance of pushing yourself to scrutinize your design without getting bogged down by one original direction. Overall, I am super proud of this project!
