Core Concepts- Exercise 16: Lorum Ipsum
Lorem Ipsum is dummy text with more-or-less normal distribution of letters that makes it look like readable English. It has been used for many years and some desktop publishing packages now use it as their default model text. If you don’t have it already, go to www.lipsum.com and generate as much as you need. Now select one of the designs from your research that you like and think works. Using the dummy text, try and copy the layout and design as closely as possible. You will need to measure the margins and column widths. If you don’t have the exact typeface get as near as you can. If you are copying a page that includes photographs just leave 10% tinted boxes to indicate their position. Is the type serif or sans serif? Is the text set ragged or justified? Are there spaces after paragraphs or are new paragraphs indented? How many columns are there to a page? What happens when you alter the fonts, change the alignment, adjust the leading or tracking?
I then went onto editing the page. I began with the fonts, what affect did changing the font have? In the original, I had identified 4 typefaces and one used a variation of a font from ‘light’ to bold.
When I identified the typefaces used I made a list of each either including the fonts name, or what text it was replacing corresponding to the original page.
I decided for my first attempt I chose this layout from the Swiss interior magazine. I really enjoyed this layout and looked forward to recreating it. I measured the size of the page, distances between paragraphs, how far the ends of paragraphs were from the edges of the page, and the columns. I lined up these angles in Photoshop using the ruler.
Next I worked through each different font, using My Fonts to check each. A few I had issues with getting the exact same or with identifying them, so I went through their suggested catalogues of fonts and chose the most suitable.
I got as close as possible to the layout as I could and liked the end results. Copying this has already taught me a lot, the thought and process behind the design of a single page is massive. It has made me appreciate the affect of ‘little’ things, such as which was the text is aligned, and how the text is separated into columns.
Final layout:
On the left is an example of when I changed the fonts to ones I might choose. I went for a regular Helvetica for the main text and Latin Modern Roman for the subtitles. I used Proxima Nova Alt light and bold for the text on the far left. I changed the ‘A’ to a Latin Modern Roman style. I kept all other elements the same and this seems to work, although the sans serif A and subtitles in the original look more aesthetically pleasing.
My next attempt was at the Soviet Weekly newspaper. I began by collecting the right fonts for the page, and then went onto creating a layout again with the ruler tool. This whole process was more time consuming than I expected but has taught me a lot and definitely grown my appreciation for composition and typography.
Final layout:
As I worked through placing the text into their columns I realised that my measurements or creating the grid was slightly off. Aware of the time I had taken during this task I decided to just edit a few areas to allow it all to fit, it is near perfect but not! I do plan to come back to this and add an improved version if I have time.
I played around with the leading, and observed the difference. The page began to look stretched and became less easily legible. Above is an example of the leading being doubled.
When changing the tracking, even doubling it, not much difference was seen. This is because of the justified alignment of the text, it is stretched and changed to fill the column it is in. I personally really like this aesthetic, although from my research it’s not very common in modern media.
