After taking in all of the previous advice given to me through group and one to one tutorials and critiques I believe I have now created what is my final three double page spreads, ensuring to utilise effective hierarchy while maintaining easily legible body copy, headings and pull out quotes, as well as containing enough difference in appear so that the spreads are interesting to observe and read but similar enough so that each page appears obviously all from the same article I feel I have done this successfully, the use of my own self generated neon typeface stands out so much to the point where simply having that appear on every page be enough to tie all of the spreads together, this allowed me to play and experiment much more with what I could potentially do/get away with. For example; the rapid changing in amount of body copy and colour helps to keep each spread more interesting and prevents the overall look from becoming boring and lacking creativity. I feel my strongest spread in terms of creativity and visual metaphor is the second page on the second spread, the use of the randomly jumbled letters that almost show full messages that are not quite noticed at first alongside the additional text within the heading literally makes the viewer “read between the lines” very carefully, I find this to be my favourite due to not only the Cleverness of the idea but the execution is done to a neat and high quality standard, the text shines brightly to attract attention and the background used (a photograph of a pin board darkened and slightly de-saturated) is dark enough so that it translates a mysterious and gloomy atmosphere, but still present enough so that it can be used to help the neon glow blend in more effectively and realistically.
I’ve found the colours used for each of the spreads to be vibrant when needed and attention grabbing, I really like the sharp contrast which help to bring out the glows from the brine signs more effectively. As well as contrast with the light gray paper, however I think the paper effect may work more effectively in my second spread if the crinkles are lessened or even removed so that the foreground becomes a more constant shade or a brighter white, but I would then lose the illusion of it being a piece of paper, perhaps more experimentation is needed for this section.
In terms of the typography, I feel the line length is suitable for the point size, this has been tested by previously printing the pages and seeing if the body copy is still easily legible, I would like to include more specialist features within particularly the body copy, balding text and italics etc. I think the now much larger titles work more effectively especially those that spill onto multiple pages. I feel doing this gives the work a greater sense of play as well as pulling more focus to the titles themselves giving me more control over the hierarchy. The amount of body copy feels very appropriate, certain pages do contain much more in a condensed space however I think I have handled that very well, the splitting of each section onto one spread alongside the changing of colour really works to split the article into sections. Finally the pull out quotes are used to try to appear as though they are selling the information that appears within, stating that the beatings slaves endure are open for sale as well as the second spread appearing to “advertise” the amount of slaves that are estimated around the world. The feeling of irony when these obscene things are presented as advertisements are shocking to the reader as well as the fact that they are placed using much larger and heavier fonts ensure that they are brought up within the hierarchy scale. The neon borders also help to exacerbate this factor. Although I have used more than two fonts I feel the neon typeface fits more into the part of the background and so the body copy and sub headings being different fonts doesn’t hurt the quality of the typography. I think the neon type looks much better when it is used with a much thicker line size, the thicker letter forms are much nicer to look at and give off more of a glow.
Aidan's Graphics Blog 