OUGD301 - Evaluation

OUGD301 - Module submission form & bibliography

Brief 2 - Reel film magazine

Brief 2 - Final layout

Brief 2 - New foiling & photography

For the Reel magazine, I had an idea of creating a black dust jacket with gold foiling. I thought it would be more fitting to treat this as the cover itself as opposed to having 2 covers and have the issue number and (sort of) tagline — staying true to film, also in gold foil. I heat pressed the design again and took some new photographs. I then edited the photographs due to the yellow cast and increased the vibrancy of the white.

OUGD301 - Final crit & feedback

Received a bunch of feedback on my work in the final crit, particularly notifying spelling and grammar issues which is spot on as I'm a quick reader (too quick) and tend to skip words / lines. It was great to see everyones work, especially those that I've never seen before and some of the boards gave me inspiration for my own. These were the presentation boards I took along with some physical material:

Crit Boards Old

Brief 2 - Reel mock ups

With the nightmare I had with printing the final magazine, the only way to showcase the spreads was to mock them up. When exporting the magazine as an issuu document, the program automatically adds shadows and highlights to create a real impression of how a magazine would look. I took a couple of screenshots of the spreads that showcased the layout and content of the magazine more effectively than others.

I also took a couple more shots of me interacting with the book and attempted to apply one of my spreads onto a blank page within the magazine.

Brief 2 - Tried to print

Today I printed 3 entire magazine spreads, press quality, ready to crop and bind, each time thinking it will finally print in colour only for it to print in black and white. My print credit was slowly running out so I was unable to print on my own uncoated stock so will have to now get it printed, full colour, for the final submission. Instead I will show a black and white version in the crit and show mocks up of the spreads (including an interactive pdf) on the boards and on screen.

This is sort of how I'm feeling.

Brief 2 - Binding

Again, I've not done much with binding in the past but as my money is limited and I am nearing the cut off date for sending my magazine off to print, I thought it would be best to print the magazine off myself. This way, I would have more control over stock etc. I used water-colour stock due to its heavy weight and uncoated texture as it is similar to the stock used in Little White Lies — the magazine I was most inspired by.

Adding the PVA, one coat a time:

Added a 5mm crease on the cover:

Then I added the dust jacket (I think this will become a separate cover as opposed to a jacket):

Brief 2 - Foiling

I have always wanted to try foiling but never realised how simple the process was. One of my initial ideas was to have a logo foil-blocked onto the magazine cover but as I initially intended for this to be a full colour print, it wasn't feasible due to how the process works. The foil adheres to the ink on the stock and obviously having a full colour print will affect how it is placed.

I chose gold foil due to its use throughout the magazine and its connotation in signifying quality. To overcome the problem of having a full colour print, I thought it would useful to try applying it to a black dust cover. Magazines typically have glossy front pages, over-loaded with imagery and headlines but conversely, I wanted to keep mine simple. I could always treat it as a main cover as opposed to dust jackets as these are mainly used for high quality and expensive publications.

I hope to try red foil on heavy white stock as alternative idea.

Brief 2 - Contents / credits

I forgot to include a page dedicated to crediting the writers and saying who contributed to the magazine and how. I experimented with a few layout ideas using Bill Gold's Posterworks as a major inspiration (here) due to its clean and succinct layout design. I am potentially going to look at metallic gold stock (third image) for the credit pages at the back of the magazine.

Brief 2 - Poster feature

I wanted a feature in my magazine that celebrated the most unique, distinctive and iconic film poster designs. Personally, one of my favourite posters is the one by Bill Gold for Alien — with the iconic  copyline 'In space, no one can hear you scream." I started to ask others what poster their favourite poster was and Luke suggested Clockwork Orange. It was only when researching this that I discovered it was also designed by Bill Gold. Looking into his work, I found he has worked on an extensive range of films and collaborated with a multitude of high-profile directors including Clint Eastwood and Alfred Hitchcock.

Brief 2 - Updates

I have decreased the point size from 9 to 7pt on 11pt leading and increased the size of the margins from 12 to 16mm to create more space. The layout appears more balanced and creates more 'breathable' space. I have removed the image grid content concept I had from the start as it was not in keeping with the rest of the content. This page, again, still needs work but I'll work on this and the cover asap. Also added the feature on the Artist to break up the content.

The Artist

screenshots

Brief 2 - Print mock up

I have finally printed a mock-up of my layout so far to check the type is consistent and legible and the images are set at the right quality. Immediately, I noticed the type was unnecessarily large. Gotham at 9pt is much bigger than Cambria at 9pt, for example, so I will reduce this to around 7 or 8pt. Some of the images are obviously not set to the correct resolution so I need to resolve this for the final print.

Overall, I am happy with the layout but due to its simplicity, I think I will need to integrate something substantially different to break up the content. Andy suggested looking at related advertising or even a subscription form. As I have featured gold within the magazine, I could also look at metallic gold stock for some of the pages.

Brief 2 - Final layout so far

I have added the 'The Artist' feature, tweaked a few things in terms of leading and pt sizes and changed the way the content pages work — these still need work but I will potentially use this composition for the final magazine. I have also added a new 'In-depth film review' page as people seem to particularly like this section — my sister will be writing these so this is all sorted.

To do:

Film poster feature
Soundtrack reviews
Ad placeholders — Cinema releases, not generic adverts
Subscription insert — Gold metallic paper?

Brief 2 - The Artist feature

The Artist was a major award-winning movie sensation last year mainly through its use of black and white silent film and compelling storytelling. Phil (who I am getting the reviews from) had already done a review and feature on The Artist and rated it 5 stars so I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to reflect back on the film and incorporate a feature within my magazine.

I started to look at several layout designs using a more traditional serif typefaces (Kepler and Cambria) and the brand gold I will be using for the main features:

I printed out some test pieces simply to judge scale and check for any errors: