OUGD505 - Studio Brief 1: Primary Research - Layout Designs (2)

Following on from the initial primary research into layouts, I found a couple of printed publications that have completely different layout designs.

The first is this book, '100 Ideas The Changes Graphic Design'.

Throughout the book the layout is very consistent and doesn't change at all. It remains the same on every page, just the content changing.

This publication shows a fully consistent layout that isn't adapted to the side of the spread or the content. It is a very standard layout throughout where the content must fit into it. Although this looks professional and easy to navigate around, it does make it a very standard book with not much interest or creativeness put into the layout design at all.
Even though this is good for me to see, it is quite boring in terms of layout design and is a complete contrast to the kind of layout design I was going for.

In contrast to the layout above, I looked at the layout designs in a mail-out I got from Jack Wills. In general layout designs in these younger contemporary clothing retailers are much more creative and experimental. I found that this one had particular elements in which I had already started to incorporate into my design.
The following image is an example of one of the pages, showing the difference between this publication and the previous one. The layouts are completely different on each page, however the consistency is through the styling of these layouts in terms of image placement, text placement and colours used.

Some of the elements I like are shown below.
The first two is the use of text that is overlapping the images. I like the use of bold colours being used as the headings and overlapping the images in such a way that they aren't making it hard to see the image or text, but working them together in the best possible way.

One point that I particularly liked is the use of the white box, almost like a side bar over the top of a large image, utilising the space in the image to give the viewer something much more interesting to look at.

Another feature I liked is the use of boarders around some of the images, as if to separate them and make them the more important feature on the page.

This is done again below, but has the text added in on a box in the same colour as the boarder. I particularly like the way this works, especially with the different typefaces that are used through it.

Another page I really liked the layout of was this introductory kind of page. It's a very simple idea which is executed in a visually interesting way to get across the whole tone of voice of the publication.