Magazine Spread Reboot
The magazine article given for this project was “What Should I Do With My Christmas Tree? 5 Ways to Recycle Your Holiday Tree”. This magazine article focuses on the benefits of recycling your Christmas tree, as well as various methods of recycling. While the first part of the article is composed of paragraphs, the second half provides a list of recycling methods. To show this division, the article places the paragraphs and additional information on one page while the list covers the entire right page. Even with this division, both sides follow an underlying grid which splits up the pages into three columns; this grid system is only broken up by the title. The typeface used for the title and subtitles is Rubik Black and the typeface used for the body text is Times New Roman Regular.
The viewer’s attention is drawn to the list and the recycling methods first because the numbers are scaled up. Illustrations of a Christmas tree and Christmas ornaments were used through the design as additional elements. The numbers of the list are placed within illustrations of Christmas ornaments to act as a bulletin point and to draw attention. While the article has an overall Christmas theme, it’s mostly focused on recycling, so the red and green are used to highlight and emphasize elements; that way it can play into the stereotypes of Christmas without taking away from the main message. This use of bright colors also makes the design feel light and fun, which fits with the author’s writing.
Critique Final
The largest changes were made to the format of the article content. The body paragraphs of the article were moved to the front page and put into columns that followed the underlying grid; this dedicates an entire page to the list and highlights its importance in the article. The tree in a trash can illustration was taken out as the general feedback had been that it was an unnecessary and confusing element, and it frees up more space for the list. The Christmas ornaments were sized up and given more overlap to highlight the playfulness of the article. The author’s name and the publishing date are placed in an ornament and the typeface was changed to the bolder Rubik Black type to highlight importance.
