As I said many times, there’s more than one way obviously.
I still think this has been taken way out of context.
I think you’re right. It’s veered off onto a tangent that’s just sort of thought-provoking and interesting to explore. I’m glad you brought it up.
I think both you and I agree on how these kinds of things lie at the root of a big problem with many formal design programs.
When I was in design school, we had similar design assignments. None of those problems focused on practical considerations or production issues. It was almost always about designing the coolest layouts that met with the approval of the instructor who, as often as not, had little practical experience designing the very things he was instructing his students on how to design.
I have mixed feelings on how big of a problem this is. I think schools should concentrate more on practical matters, but I’m unsure how far they should move in this direction and whether or not it can and should be done concurrently with learning the principles of design and getting a good grip on more aesthetic matters.
Perhaps learning about safeties, dot gain, spine creep, and other professional essentials are things that should come after the student has some experience in designing layouts where those technical issues have more immediate relevance and meaning.
Even so, I’m pretty sure that much has to do with the instructors often not being entirely familiar with these issues themselves. But maybe this is similar to high school science teachers not really being professional scientists. Instead, they’re professional educators with enough knowledge about science to teach secondary-level education students the basics. In other words, their primary skill is teaching, not science.
In university design programs, perhaps these more practical matters are mostly left to be learned on the job, through experience in working with more experienced professionals instead of professional teachers.
In research universities, it’s the graduate programs in STEM fields, where students are expected to work directly with professional scientists, engineer and researchers to gain this kind of professional knowledge. Nothing like this approach exists in graphic design graduate programs. Instead, it’s typically more of the same — academic detachment from the real world and focusing more on aesthetic and artistic coolness.
If I were designing a design graduate program, I think I’d staff the faculty almost entirely with skilled, experienced professional designers coming from various backgrounds. I don’t see that happening, though. For that matter, I pessimistically see the field increasingly being dumbed down even further by the proliferation of self-directed online classes churning out students who are largely unprepared for much of anything.
Now I’ve really veered off-topic — sorry, Dr.Dude.
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We could rock the GDF school of design!
LOL
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Ack, we all knew what you meant, and you weren’t wrong. I’m sorry if my post came off as disagreement. It was really just an observation.
Ah it’s cool no worries. My fault for being too broad.
I’m saying that I have many physical copies of books but maybe one magazines at home right now. It’s kind of hard to find an actual print copy magazine that I own.
Can you get to a shop and take a look through the magazine racks?
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If you are somewhat restricted in mobility, then I apologize for my insensitivity. If not, @Smurf2 offered a great solution.
I come from medical publishing, I never read the books!
Get yourself to the library!! You can look at magazines there and even borrow books about magazine layout. Further to that, our library here offers free access to LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com) too.
What type of course is this that you’re taking that doesn’t give you any rules or guidelines for designing magazine spreads?
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A lot of libraries are closed right now. Heck, even the doctor’s office doesn’t have magazines right now either. But even online magazines have grids and rules you can see.
Here I’ll give you one. It’s not the best design on the planet. Not even close. But you can find your own. Click the Read Online button.
https://graphics-pro.com/magazine/
There’s a lot of bad design in here, but if you poke around you can find that there are some good examples using grids and more thought out design.
This has a few examples as well, but mainly just single pages or spreads.
And there are a quite a few good examples on Behance as well.
I will say @Smurf2 had good advice about starting with sketches first. Do not just jump right to the computer.
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Magazine Comp Assignment
Use the content you choose in the Magazine Concept to layout a magazine article—two spreads (four pages) in length or longer—in full color. Work according to the specifications below to help you follow the principles of good designs and layout.
To help you as you design, here are some things you consider: You may cut the text down to be around 800–1000 words. You may decide if you’d like parts of the text to serve as a lead, pull quotes, or as a sidebar (if you choose to have one.) You may move around elements like the title and the author’s name that aren’t part of the body text. You may use the images provided or find images of your own; in either case, you are responsible for their influence on the design. Think of your first spread as a cover. You might include quite a bit of text (like on a back cover) and you may include no body text at all but the main purpose is to grab attention. Concept is as important as ever.
Turn in
(Every file/folder should be label like this: LastName.FirstInitial.P3, ex. Johnson.C.P3)
Compressed folder containing:
Packaged InDesign Document
PDF
Requirements
5 - Magazine design worksheet (See directions below)
5 - Includes the following document elements
An opening “splash” spread with headline, byline, and lead or deck. (It can also include some body text.)
Secondary spread of body text and images
At least two photos with captions and proper text wrap
Consistent column grid
Pull Quotes
Page Numbers
A dingbat at the end of the article (to show it’s done).
10 - Concept
35 - Design (5 each)
Proximity
Hierarchy
Alignment
Contrast
Repetition
Typography
Works for Target Audience
5 - InDesign Technique
10 - InDesign Styles & Master Pages
Create a paragraph styles for any repetitive elements and apply properly to the document
Use character styles as appropriate to style words inside paragraphs differently
Put any elements that might be repeated elsewhere in a complete magazine on a master page (including columns and other guides) and apply it correctly
5 - Copyfitting (According to the instructions in Lesson 15)
Comments:
Please write your concept in the Magazine Comp Comments (whether you changed it or not) as well anything you’d like to let the instructor know about your design.
I think this is a part of the brief you need to pay more attention to, to get a good grade. Right now your first spread does not look like a cover at all.
Another thing I just noticed after looking at the brief and your work again, is that “in full color” does not mean “everything needs to be colorful”. In full color means that the print would not be black and white only, but that photos would be printed in whatever color they are. If you chose this blue background because you are worried that a white background is not fulfilling the “full color requirement”, then you are misinterpreting this requirement.
Silly little anecdote: I had an art teacher once who gave me bad grades for pictures with a white background because I was just painting on the white page, leaving much of the page “empty”. Once it sank in what he was after, I just painted a first coating of white on the page before I started my painting on top of it. The teacher had to laugh and gave me an A+ later.
What strikes me about that brief straight off is that if it were anywhere close to a live brief, you’d be given the subject and almost certainly a magazine title and, more importantly, a target readership, which, in itself, fundamentally governs the approach you’d take.
As the brief doesn’t state this, that’s where I’d be starting. Decide on your demographic and research other magazines aimed at this readership. Build a picture of the readership and design for them.
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This is the part that worries me - is this brief a competition? Or is it Magazine Composition Assignment?
Either way - start in black and white text - and add colour later. I wouldn’t be too concerned having a solid colour background at this point.
Even googling some ideas can drive inspiration - https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALeKk039WdNd75AReVik0cp8PP6KkPA_SA:1609671754989&source=univ&tbm=isch&q=best+magazine+design+layouts&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwigv6TJzv_tAhVyu3EKHXWXBNgQjJkEegQIAhAB&biw=1258&bih=590
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You are a person after my own heart! Kudos for that stroke of genius!
Rules and everything aside, your first & second attempt don’t at all grab my attention. That said, the content itself isn’t something that I would normally want to read, but if you could visually make this look interesting, I would likely stop and read a bit of the article before flipping to the next page.