What is a grid?

A grid is a structure that can be any size, made up of parallel, vertical and horizontal straight lines. Grids are often used to organise information, so that the contents is rational and easy to understand. They can also help by being a structure guide for text paragraphs or even images.

Here is an example of a grid, that is most likely used by people in the profession of graphic design.

This is only one type of grid, however there are many different options used, including both simple and complex structures.

Here is an image I found, that demonstrates the fact that even the most simplest forms of structure are in fact a form of grids.

Grids can help designers because it gives them clear guidelines of where either text, or images can be placed. For example, you could want the main body of the text to end at the same time as the bottom of the image. This can easily be completed by placing both elements on the desired horizontal line on the grid, so that the layout looks neat and professional.

Here are some more images that show how a grid structure, has actually been used to create final pieces of work.

Magazine Text Analysis

Here is the first magazine that I chose to analyse: Vogue

 

 

 

The font used for the actual title of the magazine is very large and has a mixture of bold and thin on each of the characters. Also this particular font is quite iconic of Vogue, because they have kept it fairly consistent throughout the years and therefore it is really recognisable for the audience.

 

However this font is not carried out for the rest of the text on the cover, as different fonts and sizes are used for each sub heading/story. This is because the smaller font still has to be presented as clear and easy to understand and if the font used for the title was the same, it would look very scrambled and unprofessional.

 

The majority of the smaller text on the cover is even simpler than the heading, this is so that the hierarchy is first the image, then the heading, and thirdly the sub stories. The font used here is fairly bold, so it stands out against the background and is all in capitols, again  create an eye catching element to the magazine cover. 

 

The layout in my opinion, is quite top heavy because not only the very large heading is at the top, so is the famous models face and the larger sub headings of the first stories. Whereas nearer the bottom of the cover, the font is quite small and mostly quite plain.

 

Overall the font used matches together, as there only are two different fonts on the whole cover, but just in different sizes and styles. This is to keep to a scheme, which will make the cover appear more professional and high-end, as Vogue is considered to be quite a luxury and expensive magazine.

 

Here is the second magazine I chose to analyse: Empire

 

 

Here the heading of the magazine is extremely bold and large, so that it clearly stands out to it's audience. It also is bright red, which is iconic of Empire magazine because it is mostly used on all of its magazines, so that the brand is easy for the public to identify and hopefully recognise.

 

There are lots of different fonts used on this cover, which is quite unconventional because most covers have some sort of font scheme to stick to, so that the magazine does not look too cluttered. Although in this case, the fonts used is to represent each individual film that is being presented on the page, so the audience are immediately aware of the contents of this magazine.

 

The layout of this magazine cover is on the whole quite balanced, as there is large text at the top and bottom of the page. However there are not very many gaps on the cover and is packed with typography, which can look quite over-whelming and too busy. 

Leading

Leading refers to the distance between the vertical space in-between each line of text.

For example here is an image to demonstrate this, that I created on Indesign:

As you can see from the picture above, the first two words is what the original spacing was between the lines and the one at the bottom I have decreased the distance between the words, so they are closer together, although you can increase the space as well.

Leading is used because sometimes the wording can be too close together, which can be very hard to read and difficult for the public to understand. This is not very good because the whole point of branding and advertising is to make the audience aware of a certain brand, so the text used has to be clear and understandable for the public to remember and recognise a company or business.

Kerning and Tracking

Kerning is simply adjusting the spaces between the characters in a piece of text, this is used to achieve a more visually pleasing effect. It can also make the text clearer because some fonts can be too close together and when made smaller, can look very squashed and unprofessional. This is where kerning is needed, to make the text readable and clear.

Tracking is quite similar however it increases or decreases the spaces between the whole word/text, instead of just in-between each individual character like kerning. This can again make the text easier to read.

Here is the example on kerning and tracking that i created on Indesign.

I created this by simply clicking in-between two letters for kerning or highlighting the whole word for tracking. These are the buttons that I pressed after the step above, the top one is for kerning and the bottom one is tracking. Next I either pressed the top arrow to increase the space, or the bottom arrow to decrease the space. 

Type Family

Type family is a complete set of related type faces that have identical design features.

Here is an example of a type family:

These are all typed in the same font, however they look different. I did this example on Indesign and here is what you press to change the type, but keeping it in the same type family. 

Here are the options that you can choose from:

Branding and Guidelines

Branding is a really important element of any business. Branding is to tell customers what they can expect from your products or services. The main aspect of your brand would be the logo, colour, font, size etc. The impact brand has on people is very important as company's would want customers to associate their brand as being friendly, eco- friendly, have a good reputation etc.

The logo would also have to be eye catching, rememberable and consistent throughout the products or services the business offers. This is so it will be easy for the public to recognise the logo/brand.

Here are my monster posters that I created with Illustrator with slightly different fonts and layouts so I could pick the best one. I ended up choosing the third one because it is the most visually pleasing and would catch the audiences' eye.

I chose the large bold stencil font, as the other fonts I tried did not look as effective because the first one was too stretched and could be difficult to read from further away and the second one is too complicated and takes the attention away from the monster, which I wanted to be the main part of the poster.

The colour scheme I used I kept pretty simple by just using different shades of green because there are quite a lot of colours in the monster already and would look too busy with a colourful background as well.

The branding guidelines of my poster are:

FONT- has to be 'Stencil' because consistency is needed when branding successfully and this specific font is quite iconic of this film.

SIZE- the minimum size the text can be is 40pt and the maximum is 170pt.

COLOUR- the colour scheme can vary, however colours that need to be included are green and black. Also the actual monster cannot be changed at all because it needs to be rememberable and iconic of my brand.

MONSTER- the colours of the monsters are explained above, however the monster can be positioned anyway other that upside down because it will not be as recognisable.

Monster Poster

This is my final monster poster that i created on Illustrator.

On Illustrator I have learnt a variety of different skills from creating this poster, including; using the shape tool, pen tool, art board creator, inserting a clipping mask, changing font, colour and size, plus more. Also I learnt how to get any image and trace it, so it can be used on my poster. For example I searched  for a picture of a gun and used the pen tool to draw round the edges to create an outline, that way I am not just inserting a picture.

The hierarchy of this poster is the monster as you see it first, this is because it covers the majority of the poster and is very clearly seen. However the close second is definitely the title 'Spy' because it is so large and bold. This is a good thing because people would know straight away what the film is about from the posters title.

I chose pale green for the background colour of my poster because it is quite subtle and non distracting. Although I did use a darker green on the background as well because it creates more of a contrast and makes the poster visually interesting.

For the text I chose 'Stencil' because it is very bold and eye catching. I also made the font 165pt, which is very large, again to make the title of the film stand out. Whereas for the release date I used a different font and size because if I used the same one, it would be unintelligible as it would of been too bold for its size.