A- 3 column
B- 4 Column
C- 5 Column (my choice)
The target audience for these department pages are young-middle age readers that are interested in learning about the future of the way of we produce and consume food. The ideas behind these department pages are cutting edge so I wanted the design to follow suit and be a clean, modern look.
Amanda - each one of these pages speaks clearly to your chosen audience, although the last one (Grid C) take a slightly more light-hearted approach with the use of bright high-energy colors and clever shaped veggie heart (which I have actually used in one of my magazine layouts!). Some thoughts:
ReplyDeleteA - speaks to a sophisticated urban young audience who can handle a page of dense text and don't need large photos to pull them into the design - instead they are there for the detailed information. Font combinations are straight forward and could speak for a wide ranging age group. The clever visual relationship you have made between the heading and folio is unusual - but adds structure and helps the reader always know where they are - some readers, who intend to read it all, would like that.
B - The circular shapes add an off-hand appeal to the page, allowing our eyes to take a joy ride around the layout. Less content driven, and more emotionally connected to a reader that might be open to new ideas and new ways to think about the world. Circles are comprehensive ways to navigate because they allow new experiences while returning you to the grounded beginning. A slightly different type of audience would react to this layout, and possibly on a deeper level.
My concern about this layout is the overlap of type onto the bottom right image. Not sure this will be easily, or inviting, to read... although once begun, the sub-section would probably be finished whether it was easy to read, or not. But - if this layout is chosen to continue to work on, then I suggest you revisit this area of the design.
C - Lots of information organized in a very horizontal approach, and you have chunked the information into smaller areas for the reader. I wonder if the reader might be younger than the reader of the other layouts? High-energy trendy colors, accompanied by more youthful font combinations means you could easily be designing for high school/early college students. Maybe in an environmental studies class.
Thoughts: the trapped neg space sitting in top pink text box to left of heading seems to divide this section, and the reader might decide to actually skip reading the body copy in this intro section - something you should be encouraging rather than discouraging. Visual hierarchy presents a bit of a problem at the top of the page. Would you consider pulling the heart onto the page more, rethinking the FR heading this area (The Future of Farms), and adding a drop cap to the section that sits below pink box that begins "The concept of sustainable..."? Not sure any/all of these comments will be something you are interested in, but I encourage you to return to this area and rethink it a bit.
Lastly - is the column gutter wide enough between the 2 columns? It currently holds a rule, which means it probably needs to be tad wider.
That's it - I look forward to seeing which layout you will move forward with!
Wow, what a great use of color and layout. You have certainly spent some time on these designs. Of the three designs and like the second and third the best. To pick one out of the three, I'd vote for your third design. Knowing how we had not grid to work with, you've done an incredible job creating a compelling and engaging design. Again, great job. Your work has me wishing I had more time to work on my layouts. If I had the time I'd toss them out and start all over again. Your efforts are inspiring.
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