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projects: layout

Page history last edited by Mark Gaipa 13 years, 3 months ago

Projects and Assignments involving Magazine Layout

 

Idea 1: How magazines fill a page, or the significance of blank space

Flip through a wide cross-section of magazines to see how much space is left blank on any page, and then consider the following questions:

  • Do some magazines seem to minimize (or avoid) blank spaces, while others seem to indulge in it?
  • Does it seem that different kinds (or genres) of magazines use space differently? If so, why?
  • Are different kinds of items within a magazine (like articles, fiction, poetry, letters, criticism, ads) treated the same way or differently when it comes to the space surrounding them (i.e., are some items aired out more than others)? If so, why?
  • Do magazines that minimize blank spaces have a set of items they repeatedly use as page filler, like quotes, illustrations, decorations, even poems? Do these kinds of items appear as well in magazines that don't try to fill each page?  
  • Select two magazines, one that avoids blank pages and the other that doesn't: what meaning or value does blank space have for either? What might the use of space say about the magazine as a whole, or about its target audience?
  • What effect does the blank space (or lack of it) surrounding a text have upon how you read that text in these magazines? What effect does it have upon how you relate that text to other texts in the magazines?

 

Idea 2: The significance of text columns

One might also survey a variety of magazines to determine how and why they use text columns:

  • Based on your quick survey, which is the most popular layout choice for a page of text: one column, two columns, three, four, five?  
  • Does there seem to be some rationale for how (or whether) magazines divide text into columns? Do similar kinds of magazines seem to use columns similarly? Is this choice instead a function of the magazine's physical size?
  • Is all text within a magazine made to fit into the same set of columns (e.g., two columns per page), or does the number of columns vary from page to page?  If the latter, what explains the variation? Are different kinds of text typically fit into a different number of columns?
  • Do some kinds of text (e.g., poetry) violate the magazine's column system entirely? If so, why?
  • Do any of the magazines you surveyed change, over time, their column system--moving, say, from two to three columns per page? Why the change?

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