Type and Grid

Here are some examples of my redesigned double page spreads for Type and grid.

1.

In this example below I have kept many of the same elements but tried to simplify the overall look of the DPS. The right page has been dramatically simplified and an entire section regarding a competition has been removed. By taking away the section I was able to leave a large white space above the image which I think looks really clean and fresh. To make the image stand out i removed it from its frame and used text wrap around the under side to give it more importance than the text. I also enlarged it and moved it just below the center of the page leading into the white space. I have kept all the detail of the text that comes with this section of the article including the different weights and colours of text an detail like the bullet points and the reversed out 'Easy' box in red. The word count should also be quite similar to the original but I have used placeholder text. 

I have bent the title around the curvature of the top of the bowl to make it interesting and more dynamic. I did this by creating an invisible path using the pen tool and then using 'Type on a path' tool to follow the path. I also kept the same font and colour as the original because they fit well in the context of the page. 

For the left hand side I have removed only one small section and then re-designed the layout.

I recreated the Diary Dates box in photoshop and created the text in Adobe Illustrator with the pen tool.

I took away the picture in this part of the image because the colours made the overall picture too busy. 

I then tilted it slightly and placed it in the bottom left of the page instead of the top right. 

I enlarged the Elderflower Cordial section of the page by quite a lot by making the image larger and this gives it more importance. It also mixes the food and drink aspects of the page a bit better where in the original it was much more focussed on just food. 

You can also see that I follow the original grid layout and I think it works well to structure each page.

I also enlarged the Veal picture to compensate for the loss of one section, but this also makes it stand out more and I think improves the article.

Here is the final view of the first DPS:

2.

For the next double page spread, I tried to simplify the layout even more. 

I removed every article except for the 'Berry good indeed' one on the right page so that it was the sole focus of the DPS. 

To start, I enlarged the image dramatically as shown in my original thumbnail. I made it cross the page divider in the middle, which could actually decrease the aesthetic appeal of the image but is needed to get this effect. I moved it slightly down the page to leave room for the article text at the top, which is exactly the same as in the first example above but has been moved around and the format changed slightly. 

For the title, I used the same technique as the last example but placed it under the bowl instead of over it, also making it larger than before and making it the only text on the left page. 

I really like the look of the pages and the use of space on the left page gives the same effect as in the last example. Overall I really like the simplified spread and the way the text is laid out is clear and takes up such a small amount of space that it doesn't look busy at all. 

Again, it fits with the grid of the original.

The biggest problem that I can see here is that it may be TOO simple. I have removed so much information from the original that it has completely changed the context of the spread and might not fit within the brief.

3.

Because the last spread could be too simple I have also made this one.

It is kind of like a mix between the first and second examples; Really simple but still retaining some good information.

I have taken elements from each of the previous examples and put them into this new one. The whole right page of the spread is identical to the right page of the original example, but the left page has been changed quite a lot. 

I originally was working with this design of having the image in a bounding box, but it looked a bit too fixed and didn't fit well with the right page so I photoshopped it out of its box.

The biggest change is that the left page now also has only one article which I chose as the veal article. 

I have enlarged the veal image a lot and also taken it out of it's frame to give it the same importance (or maybe more) as the berry article. 

The text for the Veal article is really simply laid out underneath the image, following the grid pattern but leaving white space to the right so that each page has a large empty space to keep the look simple.

I really like the way the images go in a kind of diagonal direction from top left to bottom right, and the use of white space makes the text look simple even though it is quite detailed and busy.