OUGD403 STUDIO BRIEF 3 - STUDY TASK 3 - NEWSPAPER LAYOUT

For this task we were split up into groups of 4 or 5 and and given a newspaper headline that we have to briefly research and design a publication layout, this could be in the form of a newspaper article, magazine article, or online article, that was suitable for our headline.

My group was given the headline "Term-time holiday ban", so our job was to research the current ban on term-time holidays, and produce a publication about it, not including body text though, as we were only given the afternoon to complete it. 

We started off by researching current articles on the ban on term-time holidays, and found a really useful one in The Guardian online (Ban on term time holidays article), which gave us a lot of the basic facts we needed to help us produce our page layout, such as how much the government is fining parents, and exactly why and how they are fining them. What I thought what was incredible is that they are fining each parent of the child £60 per child per day they are on holiday, which could cost the parents an extra £2500 on top of the cost of their holiday in fines. This is frankly ridiculous, hence why the public is trying to overturn this new ban, as it simply doesn't take into consideration family situations.

We then thought the next best move, now we know a little bit about what our topic is actually about, to create a mind map of all our idea for the layout, including thoughts about which typefaces we could use, and the imagery included as well.

Mind map, brainstorming ideas.

We then moved on to experiment with layout, drawing up a few mock up layouts, using a similar grid system to that used in The Independent newspaper. We wanted our layout to be kind of ironic, making people wish they could go on holiday, when in fact the article is all about how they can't. 

Grid system we created, based on The Independent newspaper's grid system.

Here we tried to take a very minimalist approach to make it kind of look like The Independent, and to give our photograph the space it needs to breathe and stand out well. We also didn't want the page to appear overwhelming, as the people who will most likely read an article on term-time holiday bans would be parents themselves, who don't typically have the time to sit down and read a lengthy article. The left side of the image and the subheading and body text all line up nicely, however, because the image carries on further to the right, it looks like it's been centrally aligned but it's gone wrong, so looks a bit odd, especially with the image caption just chilling on it's own to the right.

We then tried having it all aligned to the right, which gives it a much more even appearance, it looks as if that's how it's supposed to look, although I feel it looks slightly right side heavy, like it might topple over at any given moment.

Here I attempted to give it a more even, balanced appearance, with a block of body text at the top below the headline, something to start off the article, with a long image filling up the whole of he left side of the page, and body text and a subheading on the right hand side. Perhaps the subheading is in the wrong place however, as the article has already started above it previously. I do feel this layout looks a lot more balanced, and it still has the white space we are aiming to achieve at the bottom, perfect for some kind of footer. I made the suggestion of having the body text descend further, so that it is the same length as the image, however ends further down, instead of in line with the foot of the image. This gives the page a quirky kind of quality that's interesting and unusual.

Here we tried again with the body text at the top of the page, only this time the image spans the width of the page pretty much, with the image caption below it. The bottom third of the page is then occupied with a sub heading and more body text, which in retrospect, the subheading is in the wrong place again, it should ideally be at the top of the page, or at least where the body text actually starts. I think this layout works quite well otherwise.

As a group, however, we chose this design as the one we were going to use for our article, as we thought it was the most modern looking, and we thought the white space running down the left hand side work effectively to create an appearance of mystery, so people thought what was supposed to be there.

We then started experimentation with our image and the general layout of the page digitally, using a random image off the internet that would be similar to the image in our final layout. We thought about making the image look like a postcard, to lure people to read the article, and also subconsciously make them want to go on holiday as well. We looked at a few 1950's postcard designs, as we liked the idea of having a script typeface on the postcard, which is very typical for 1950's postcards, as you can see in the two examples below.

We used the font Brush Script for the caption that goes on the photography, which is very similar to those used in the 50's. We also made the font white as we thought this would make it stand out more against the palm tree's and the deep blue sky. 

We tried using the wish you were here text as a headline for the page, as we thought this would engage the reader, and also tease them as well, suggesting we're on holiday somewhere glorious, but they can't join us. I think this looks a bit too weak however to work as a headline.

We then experimented with a different font, Cooper Black, to make the headline stand out a lot more. Uppercase lettering looks a bit harsh however, like we're shouting at the reader. It should be calming instead of angry.

We then tried the text on top of the image again, only in black this time, to see if this has a more powerful effect, however it kind of disappears in the palm tree's and shrubbery.

In the end we stuck with the text in the top right hand corner, in white, where it is small and understated, letting the image do all the talking, kind of as an afterthought, as the person sending the card is having too much fun on holiday to concentrate fully.

We thought again about a headline for out article, although thought this font wasn't bold enough to stand out against the bold, colourful image. The headline itself however is to the point and informative.

This is our final page layout, where we have used a bolder font, Avenir Book to make the headline stand out a lot more against the photograph. A mistake we made in the experimentation of this layout was that we used a random image, not one we were actually going to use in our publication, as the colours vary massively, so this changes where we should put the text. In this case however we were lucky we could still have the text at the top right of the image however. The elements all line up to the right hand side of the page, giving it a measured appearance, and the expanse of white space makes it appear minimalist and tranquil, the type of atmosphere you want to create when you're secretly trying to lure someone into going on holiday. The body text and image caption use the font Minion Pro, as being a serif font it is easy to read. Most newspapers use a serif font for their body text, so we thought using a serif font in our publication would stay in fitting with the general appearance of typical newspaper articles.