Layout Design.
Computer Graphics Magazine Spread Project
The Study
This project was integrated as part of my BMGT 458Q Computer Graphics class at University of Maryland. The task provided was to create a feature magazine spread on the topic of your choice. Ever since traveling to The Netherlands, where my father was born, I have been wanting to go back and visit more of Europe. I also love the city so I decided to create a magazine spread outlining “The Top 5 Cities In Europe”.
After formulating a series of sketches, I came up with a rough for my magazine spread however I faced some challenges in the process. My original idea was to create a collage resemblant of a Pinterest travel board but I ended up scratching this idea because I wanted a more streamlined design and a professional feel for the magazine I chose, Travel + Leisure. I had difficulty defining a color palette and how I wanted to arrange the photos on the page.
The target audience of Travel + Leisure magazine is people who are around 25-54 years old (according to data provided by Travel and Leisure). Readers of this magazine are in the working world, most have jobs and enough money to travel. The audience has travel savings after college or will be looking to travel because of big life events (wedding, honeymoon, anniversary, family trip, work trip…). Also some readers may be nearing retirement and are interested in the “Leisure” aspect of travel, looking to celebrate life after work.
The Solution
In order to create a magazine spread best fitted for Travel + Leisure’s audience, I decided to use high contrast black and white to emulate professionalism. After hearing feedback from my peers, I also decided to pull out an orange accent color from one of the photos I used to make the spread more eye catching and have less of a serious tone.
My inspiration for how I arranged the photos came from my photography experience. Photography plays a large role in many travel explorations and nodding to this art form could help bring up this kind of nostalgia to readers and help them form a personal connection with the magazine. I wanted the photos to be the main event of the magazine spread and keep text to a minimum.
I arranged the photos in a way that they almost look like windows. I also cropped the images to enhance artistic elements in each, like a camera focusing in on architecture detail.