Inspiration
Upon initially approaching the design for the publication I looked at some examples of how smaller sized interview/or non-interview publications I have make the most of their grid layouts to communicate a mass of content in a still simplistic and effective way.
- I looked at the layouts used within Josiah Craven's Issues of Nest - very experimental yet justified layouts which still enhance negative space and how you navigate around the articles.
- In 'Bab Mag' an independent monthly magazine celebrating local creatives and ongoings in Birmingham which I keep up with - more minimal, straight forward type layout, experiments more with side aligned & full bleed images than the type
- The modernist styled type-set layouts and strange style within the Cos A/W 2016 Mag, proved a good source of inspiration looking at it from a slightly different perspective.
- And then the more traditional zine style interview layouts used within my collection of skate magazines - how they effective combine text with busy and colourful imagery.
- As well as my favourite magazine publisher Desillusion which is a larger hard-back publication.
They are the French purveyors of all things surf, skate, and snow; and their mag keeps it's beautiful hardback coffee book format, it is ad-free so is incredibly design driven enhancing negative space with minimal/experimental image layout and a consistent article grid which does include some variation with quotes and images.
Justifications
- I created the cover design with the aims of it introducing Vapour as stark and very typographically bold, reflecting them as the standout graphic design agency they are. The large text can be interpreted as a ‘Vapour trail’ which is actually the blog section of their website, linking to twitter and documenting their recent practise and released projects. I also received feedback that the design can be compared to the retro title sequence design style of Star Wars - which can also be justified through the Storm Trooper figurines pictured around their studio!
- I went for a more complexed grid layout than usual (8x5 - considering its only A5 in size), one that still strongly makes use of negative space to enhance the communication of content, and ensure a consistent flow through pages. The inner 2 columns of the spreads are reserved for small separate text and the overlap of images only - to create this contrast between pages and to not over-complicate the areas of body text.
- For the body text layouts within the grid, I either broke it into 2 columns of text (spreading across 6-column-wide) - more readable as less words on the line to get lost in. Or I mixed it up with one wider column spreading across the 6 columns entirely, keeping the layout fresh as you flick through.
- In terms of typography, I used the very bold and industrial feeling ‘Druk Wide Web Heavy’; then for larger text and headings within the publication I am using a personal favourite and reflection of my own editorial style - Wellrock Slab - it feels legible from its sans serif like form, yet sophisticated and charismatic from the unusual small-size slab serifs. For body text, a typeface called Prelo Slab is used, its various styles and line weights provided me with a consistent slab serif typeface to Wellrock; which was much more legible at a small scale (SemiBold used for my questions, Light used for their responses to break the content up).
- On the inner cover pages, I have used a particular texture-pattern. This pattern is actually sampled from the rugs they have in the studio! When I was there we had a laugh about how I was photographing them so I wanted to reference this in there some how!
- The title pages on 03, 07, 17 & 29 aim to break up the different sections of the interview a bit better, as I understand how some of the middle sections are quite long reads! - yet full of inspirational content from our chat!
- I was slightly more experimental with the information provided in the margins than in my previous editorials. Having it typeset to both be facing inwards towards each other, directing attention in towards the content; also on the left page of each spread including a corresponding title to the page (easily relatable then to the contents)
- When it came to editing the images I took, I just wanted to enhance the contrast and saturation slightly, to make the images feel more bold against the negative space. I placed them in an order which attempts to best reflect the content on each page. Showcasing their beautiful studio, them doing their thing inside it and also a few favourite projects.
Overall, I am very pleased with my response to the interview, I feel like the content of showing their routes into industry and the lessons they have learnt from that has been communicated in a clean and effective style which reflects and promotes both of us!
I have sent them the publication via Issuu so they can give me so final feedback on it before I get it printed and re-visit them at the studio with each of their copies! Hopefully I will receive this before the deadline!
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