- Part II: Turn Your Concept into a Finished Design Piece
- ✔ The final step of the exercise is to produce your completed project: a magazine ad, poster, book cover, or home page. To help you along, I have listed some additional information and tips for each type of project.
- ✔ Remember that in whichever project you choose, you must think about the structure of the information so that it is logical and easy to read. You must consider carefully the typeface you will use for the supporting information, as you don't want to use a font that visually clashes with your concept or has no relevance to the subject. You must also continue to avoid pictorial representations in this stage, like photos, illustrations, or clip art.
- ✔ Also be sure to spell check and proofread every word of your finished piece and make sure that your finished results contain information that is appropriate and realistic for the project type that you chose.
- Magazine Advertisement
- Use a portrait page layout of 8 x 10.5 inches. As this magazine ad is for a TV biography program about the person on the A&E network, you can download the A&E network logo in EPS format.
- Supporting information might include copy like: "The A&E network is proud to present the story of Joe Smith, inventor of the wooden spoon. Useful for stirring and for people who come last! Premiering Wednesday, June 5 at 8 p.m. on A&E."
- Poster for a Play
- Use a portrait page layout of 8 x 10.5 inches. Be sure to research layout and information structure on posters around you, such as in theatres, in the community, and in books on poster design.
- To complete the design you should add relevant information such as the playwright's name, the director, the name of theatre, and/or the dates of the performances. You may wish to add further information, for example the names of additional cast members and logos of the sponsors of the production. Similar information might be used if you chose a movie poster as your project.
- ✔ Book Cover
- ✔ Use a portrait page layout of 6 x 8 inches. Research 10 to 15 book covers, particularly biographies, for layout and information structure techniques. Look at the type sizes used in relation to the book title and the positioning of the secondary information in the layout.
- ✔ To complete your design, you should add at least the author's name and the name of the publisher (with logo, if possible). A tag line or subheading for the book may also be appropriate (for example, "John Smith - Inventor of the Wooden Spoon").
- Home Page of a Web Site
- Use a landscape page layout of 10.5 x 8 inches. Review five to 10 different relevant sites to investigate type sizes used and the positioning of supplementary elements like navigation and body copy.
- To complete the home page, you will need to add relevant text to the page beyond just the person's name design. This may include navigation and a brief write-up about the person.
- Summarizing Your Work
- ✔ Save your completed project as a JPEG that includes the name of the subject and project type. For example, madonna_ad.jpg.
- Submit your final project to your instructor with a summary of your work that addresses these questions:
- ✔ 1. Who is your chosen subject? Write one sentence expressing the concept you are trying to communicate.
- 2. How does your choice of typeface, colors, and arrangement visually communicate the concept?
- ✔ 3. How do the supporting elements of the design (the use of space on the page, the supplementary text, and so on) work with the main type piece and guide the information hierarchy.
- ✔ Before you go out in the world to show off your new-found typography prowess, take a moment to review some categories and uses of display type in this Review Kit:
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