Project 5: Digital Spread
Project Introduction
For this project, I was tasked with creating a digital magazine layout which would use all of the previous design skills learned previously through other projects. I will need to create three spreads of a feature article that might appear in a specific mainstream publication.
The publication that I chose was Paper Magazine and using all of the design skills that I have learned previously (composition, typography, hierarchy, color, etc), I will create three spreads for a feature article that might appear in Vogue.
Grid Exercise
11/17/2020
Before starting my project, I completed a quick grid exercise in order to prepare me for creating my spread. I had a bit of strouple
Information Research
11/19/2020
Part of the reason I chose Paper Magazine were their simple yet colorful covers. There is not a lot of text on the front besides the dates and the title. The backgrounds are very simple — usually a single color besides the Rihanna cover as shown below — so that the main person on the cover shines fully. There is an interesting use of color, but still a well balanced and intriguing piece.
I struggled to find pictures of the inside of Paper since it has gone digital due to Co-vid. In addition, the magazine had a quarterly print so there weren’t a lot of pictures of the inside. Shown below is a picture of the spreads in Paper’s last printed version which was an indepth interview with Lady Gaga.
Since I couldn’t find more pictures of the inside of Paper, I created a moodboard of some spreads that seem similar to what Paper magazine would have. They are on the pinterest board linked below.
Overall for what I would like my spreads to look like, I would like to maybe do a spread that fits almost a retro vibe but a little bit more colorful and minimalistic.
Paper is probably most well-known for their iconic covers, corresponding to their interviews they have done with celebrities. Since Paper is now fully digital due to Covid-19, I chose one of the interviews they did with Duckwrth.
For Duckwrth, Happiness Is an Era: Story by Trey Alston / Photography by Tylor Ballard / Styling by Star Burleigh
It’s been hard to come up with a genuine, unforced smile in 2020. From the pandemic restricting my daily routine, to the uncertainty plaguing the presidential election that’s finally gotten the orange slime out of office, every day my face morphs into a stale grimace between fresh pulls of my Twitter feed as I look for the next meme that’ll elicit a real-life laugh. Just to feel something in this drab time is a blessing.
Luckily, Duckwrth’s music brings me genuine joy, as it does countless others. The 32-year-old artist’s mind-boiling music bleeds elements of funk and washes over the listener with waves of the sun’s radiance unlike damn near anyone else in his weight class. Whether he’s rapping like he’s sliding down a stair bannister on a song like “Quick,” or whispering over a campfire of hand claps and soft, feminine voices on “Say What U Mean,” he generates an excitement through his work that is perfect for this moment in particular, avoiding the clichés of trap drums that try and start a party in your living room.
Both “Quick” and “Say What U Mean” come from Duckwrth’s sophomore album, SuperGood, that dropped in August. Built as a celebration of the Black music that inspires his aesthetic, it takes feel-good energy to the next level and creates a body of work that makes happiness an era. “It’s crazy to go back to it, to leave it and come back, and just hear the quality of the album and just how it was mixed and how we arranged it, and just the volume of it,” he says over the phone. “I was playing it in a session last night, and it was just like, ‘Damn, this shit is crazy.’ Like I said, just the volume of it. That’s something I’m very much happy about, but I love it.”
PAPER spoke to Duckwrth about SuperGood, being happy this year and what we can expect from him next.
SuperGood came out in August. How were you doing through the year up until then? What was making you happy? Because as I was reading and listening to the album, the theme that I kept seeing a lot and hearing was about happiness.
I think I opened up and fell in love. I found love. I opened in many ways in my life that I’d been very restricted about before. I feel like everybody’s going through this shit where you have a bad relationship and then you just close off. You put your fence up, so finally around May 2019, I started taking my fences down and allowing myself to be more free, in that sense, just to breathe. And then from there, it was time to make an album called SuperGood.
Was the album therapeutic for you?
Very much so. There’s probably three songs on there that are gospel. That’s my background in general. I went to church for 18 years; my grandpa’s a pastor. So playing around with some of these sounds and vocal stacking and stuff like that made it nostalgic for me, and it just brought me back to church, not so much like the sermon, but when the choir was singing, I’d just be sitting there, head peaked up.
I read an interview with DJBooth from a couple of months ago where you said that making tacos with your girlfriend was a good, happy moment for you. We’re full-swing into the political season and its ups and downs, so what’s making you happy right now?
I’m back to recording again, crazy enough. For so long, I felt I was having tour withdrawal because I’m usually moving around at this time of the year and feeling misplaced. I started working with some of my homies that I used to work with back in the day on my first album and it’s like homecoming. It was just like, “Man, this feels right.” Because we tried to work after that album and it wasn’t quite working. I had to go through my motions with different people, but coming back to this producer and, I guess, group of friends and shit, the music feels right. I had a writer’s block all year and now the writer’s block is gone. So to be able to write again and create and being in creative mode, that’s my genuine essence as a creative. And I feel very placed within being able to create in some type of way, so that’s been keeping me happy this year.
“If people can press play and feel encouraged that there’s some light in the dark tunnel, it’s doing its job.”
How did you get rid of that writer’s block?
Just connecting with the homies and hitting those very familiar notes. I felt like I was, not lost, but just figuring out where the hell I was going to go after SuperGood. And then when I linked with the homies, it made me want to rap again — to project my vocals. It’s been a long year and everything, so I feel like a lot of what I’ve gone through and what everybody’s going through this year is funneling through me in the lyrics and the way I’m projecting shit. What’s tight is we’re just continuing on with this whole SuperGood aesthetic and feel and sound and everything, so it’s like SuperGood is the intro to this world that I’m going to be able to continue with.
What kind of themes should we be looking for in the upcoming music?
I’m just more forward this time. I think I’m going to be projecting a little bit more. The funk continues. I think with this one, I’m going to have a little bit more nods to the West Coast since I’m from South Central. I don’t really get to touch on it as much as I’d like to, so I think this one is going to be funky. It’s going to be behind the beat; it’s going to be nicely swung; it’s going to be nasty. But it’s still SuperGood at the end of the day.
With everything going on right now, how do you feel about SuperGood’s ability to make people happy in the time since then? Would you say its meaning has grown or changed?
It’s remained the same because we’re still in the same shit. If people can press play and feel encouraged that there’s some light in the dark tunnel, it’s doing its job. That’s what I made it for, so I feel like it’s still there. It’s still relevant, in that sense.
How do you personally feel about the album since its release, now that you’ve had time to really sit with it?
It’s crazy to go back to it — to leave it and come back, and hear the quality of the album and how it was mixed and how we arranged it and the volume of it. I was playing it in a session last night, and it was just like, “Damn, this shit is crazy.” Like I said, just the volume of it. That’s something I’m very much happy about, but I love it.
“I’m naturally going to evolve. I’m never going to stay in one place.”
The optimism of SuperGood is perfect for such a shitty year. But what about post-2020? When the quarantine lets up and it’s a little more… happier outside, how will your message change? Will you still be exploring the world of SuperGood, or do you plan on moving on?
I’m naturally going to evolve. I’m never going to stay in one place. SuperGood was the intro to this world and the comfort that I can have within myself. I don’t feel like I have to be punk or be hard or even do trap shit or anything like that. I feel like I can just feel comfortable in the funk and soul. That’s the feeling of the funk and soul. I’m just going to evolve into funk.
The year’s nearly over. What are you looking forward to in 2021?
Living. I really don’t have any expectations. I’ve had expectations this year and they’ve all kind of fallen flat on their face. So I’ll keep living. If it opens up where we can tour or perform, that’s tight. But we’re in a pandemic, so you just have to ride it out. The best thing is keeping up my health, feeling the best that I can, mentally. There were a lot of down times I had, some dark moments I had this year, so I just want to make sure that I keep my mental health up and my physical health up. So for the time when we can come out and commune, I want to be on point, ready to go, and go ham, go stupid and fuck the world up.
Within the article were imbedded pictures of Duckwrth that I would like to include in my layout.
First Sketches / Digitization
11/24/2020
Since I was unable to go to class due to Thanksgiving timing and travelling, I was unable to get feedback for my sketches. The 3 spreads are shown below:
Generally, I wanted to go for a very simple and minimalistic looking spread due to the fact that the spread for Lady Gaga was very simplistic. I didn’t want to go too basic, however, since it would be very low effort. Thus, I tried to make the photos and text more connected together. Some of the photos are odd shapes due to the fact that they have a white background, so I was hoping to make the text outline the pictures more. In addition, I really liked the two column format that the original magazine kept so I tried to follow the big two column format.
Typeface
In terms of typeface, I noticed that for the title, they did a very interesting font, but for the rest of the article they used what looks like a serif font. In order to keep the general theme, I will use a clean-looking serif font (like Times New Roman) for the article, and in order to bring back the feeling of the cover, I am going to find a font similar to the font found on the cover. The font used on the cover is called “Regal Pro,” and the best match I could find was “Real Head Pro,” which was used on the titles and quotes in the spread.
Shown below is my first attempt at Digitization:
Group Critique
12/1/2020
After showing my magazine spread during class, I got the following critique:
- Maybe use the splash of red from the chair more
- Increase the space between the quote and text in the second spread
- For the last spread: maybe take some of the questions from the second slide and put them on the third
- Play around with the spacing and the locations of each of the questions
- Change the sizing of the images
- For the left pages, move ‘Paper Magazine’ to the left
Second Iteration
12/3/2020
After getting the previous feedback, I created the following changes:
In order to bring back the vibes of the cover, I tried to replicate the color border that they have around the front of the magazine in my spreads. I thought adding a bit of color would make the white space a little less noticeable. In addition, I moved both of the questions on the second spread to the third spread so I could use more space and focus the second spread on being the picture and using the red artfully to draw attention to the quote.
From here I got the following feedback:
- remove the bar in the center
- extend the pictures
- play with the font size and color more
Third and Final Iteration
12/10/2020
So after I got the above critique, I created the following:
As I was going over my work, I noticed that the separation between each question was not as distinct, so I tried to find a way to enhance that distinction. I decided to add shapes between each of the questions. I was not quite satisfied with the spacing of the shapes above so I played around a lot with what shape I used. I originally started with a simple dot but it didn’t seems to match the theme of the spreads so I switched into a hexagon. I decided to do three different hexagons because I found that the space looked filler better as three.
In addition, I tried to fix some of the margins and make the grid more apparent, especially in the first picture. I aligned the credits underneath the title to the grid and made the title text left aligned.
Then, I asked my peers and fellow classmates for some more feedback and created the following final iteration:
I did a lot of fine-tuning from the previous draft in order to create this. First, I made the hexagons different colors in order to make the separation a bit more distinct and changed the spacing so that the hexagons are more spread out. In addition, I made the spacing between the columns of text a bit wider in order to make the spread space a little bit more even.
For the third spread, I changed the picture on the left to be a bit longer and fill up more space. Then, I aligned the text and pictures on the right side of the spread align with the bottom of the image as the text in the first spread is aligned with the picture on the left side of the spread.
For the first spread, I also messed a little with the text that is going around the image. I found that the spacing was a little weird and odd to read, so I made it so that each line wasn’t too different in length comparatively to the lines above and below it.
Finally, I added a bibliography and page numbers to my magazine spreads.
The following link is to the issuu version of my spread, where the bibliography and cover are attached:
Final Thoughts/ Conclusion
Overall, this project helped me realize how much I have learned in this class. I was able to apply what I’ve learned in terms of color, font, composition, and overall communication design into this project. More specifically, I learned how to use space appropriately and effectively: balancing between whitespace and non-white space, making sure not to leave things cluttered, and making sure the space I do use is filled effectively. It made me put a lot of thought into all of my design actions, whether it be placing an image or moving a text box a little to the left, I needed to know how one small change could affect the overall composition of the piece.
