Final double page spread design

Here is my last and final design for the double page spread for the creative review magazine moduel.

From the previous design i decided to change the layout a bit by adding a image at the top of the page with all of the writing in 3 columns and that i added in a quotation box of a quote that many people in the subculture said when interviewed and i clipped it in a box around the text so people would know that it is a quotation and that it is an important quote. The text colour is black and pink and i used the 2 colour text idea so that it can highlight the important information as well as to keep the design nice and clean as well as keeping it original. i applied a drop shadow on the main text and the images so that they don’t look that plain and boring and not stand out. i chose to keep the background plain white because when i applied other colours in the background, i personally thought that it ruined the design in general. Although the white background was a bit too plain so i added some cogs and gears in the background with low opacity on it.

Overal i think this design is successful and clean.

Creative Review front cover design research

When looking at other designs for the front cover design for the creative review magazine, i see that they are all unique in there very own way. All the designs are completely different like sometimes there are vector designs, conceptional designs, photography designs and even fine art designs.

Sometimes with these designs on the creative review front cover, they tend to have different elements with the creative review title on top of the magazine like sometimes the design overlaps the text and sometimes the title has a drop shadow on the main design, this is a clear example of that every design is unique.

When looking at these designs i noticed that there is always a key colour scheme that the designs use as well as when looking at these designs i also noticed that the title magazine (Creative Review) is all the same in most of the designs and is only changed rarely depending on the colours that is used in the design.

 The vector designs above gave me the inspiration to have a go at creating and designing my own vector character. Also when looking at the vector designs, I’ve noticed that the background colour is normally either white or another dark colour that is used within the design. One of the designs has a large letter in the background with low opacity on it and that gave me a idea to stick something that is to do with my design in a way in the background of the main design.

Text in Perspective

I used this effect on the text in my subculture creative review front cover to create a cool and majestic look on the text.

To do this all i did was create the text with a cool font that i thought that would look nice when i put the text into perspective. Then i rasterise the text layer and then i went into free transform by clicking ctrl + T or cmd + T and then right click on the free transform and clicked on perspective. After that i then played around with the corners of the free transform tool to create a cool perspective that would work and suit the image.

Here is another example of me using the perspective tool:

Personally i think this works most of the time depending on what angle you are wanting the text to be in.

My Subculture Creative Review double page spread so far

Here is my design for the double page spread for the creative review magazine. For the first page (right hand side) i used and covered a image to do with steampunk throughout the entire page as well as i used a dark green font that is big and is a serif and i did this because it suited the style of the spread. with the text below it, i highlighted the main text that should be read and the idea of this would to be eye-catching. Also with the image, i filtered the background and everything else in the image except the guy in the clothes to be in black and white and the reason i did this was to create an effect that people would focus mainly on the clothes worn as it is unique. i also wanted to show a contrast that the steam trains was and is old and that the clothes the guy is wearing is bringing in retro-futuristic.

Now moving onto the second page (Left hand side). i used a white background and black text as i thought it would be great in contrast of the first page so it would stand out a bit more than other pages in the creative review magazine. But i used some cogs and gears with a low opacity in the background so that the background doesn’t look that dull and that these cogs and gears also fits the subculture in general. I put all the text into 3 big columns and that i used another text box for a specific quote that someone and most people said about the subculture. i also placed some images around the page to help people notify what the text is taking about and that i involved a bit image at the top to cover some of the white background that was left behind.

Creative review double page spread research

I went on the internet to look for interesting and inspiring magazine layouts to help me create a page layout that is eye-catching and also easy to read. From the research i got, I looked at layout of the images and text so that I can develop my double page spread layout knowledge. A pattern in these double page spreads is that most of them have an image covering the first page with the article on the next, with drop capitals included for the beginning sentence. Most of the text is positioned in the bottom two thirds of the second page split into two paragraphs.

From this design you can see that half the page has an image on it with a structured template over the top drawing the audiences eye to the centre of the image as well as the headline as well. The text has been positioned so that it is formed around the template shape to give the article a more interesting shape. The use of the coloured drop capital brings the reader’s eye to the beginning of the main article.

From this layout you can see that the background image is a cityscape that covers the whole double page spread with what looks like marks where the image has been torn. From the double page spread the headline to the article is featured on the first page as well as a sub heading inside of the torn areas which is where all the text is positioned. All the text in the article is coloured white to stand out against that background.

This double page spread has all the images in black and white which shows that the designer kept his colour scheme with the main image of the of the artist covering the whole first page with a quote just under his face, the other half of the double page spread is coloured to look similar to the first page. The headline of the article is coloured yellow so that it stands out against the dark grey background. The main article is split into two large columns of text which are coloured white so that they can be read easily against the dark grey background.

Subculture ‘Steampunk’ Research

Here is my inspiration/research so far into looking at designs for what other designers do and used for this subculture.

i like all of these designs and i have also found out that they all have something in common, that they are all based around the same colour scheme (green, brown, red, black, grey, etc.) and that they all have a sort of grunge on the design to make the image look like it is old and was advertised in the victorian times itself.

In my final piece for the subculture creative review front cover design, I will be including a dark grunge to create a old fashioned look so that the image looks like it was created back in the victorian days as well as i will be using the dark colour scheme as it suits the steampunk subculture look.

Subculture Creative Review Final cover design

Here is my final design piece for the creative review magazine subculture module. The reason i chose to use these dark colours in the background is because it suited the main vector image instead of bright colours as it set the mood off the initial idea of steampunk – To make it look mysterious. Steampunk is a subculture that is mainly based around the victorian times as well as bringing in a bit of retro-futuristic into play, and thats where the text i applied comes in. I used this text as it looks like it was made in the victorian times and it suits the subculture in general. I also skewed and made the text 3d so that it brings more volume and interest into the final design

Also i added in cogs and gears in the background to make it look like the subculture more as people in the subculture are based around customising their own personal items in which other words they use is that they ‘Steampunk’d their personal items. People has “steampunk’d” everything from computers, desks, telephone, watches and guitars to cars, motorcycles, and whole houses. These objects can vary from a grungy look of a forgotten antique to the shiny overwrought newness of a Victorian gentleman’s club. Think brass and copper, glass and polished wood, engraving and etching, and details for the sake of details.

Subculture Creative review front cover idea

Here is a slight idea i had for the front cover of the creative review magazine.

So what i was going to do and did is get a picture of a guy wearing some well known steampunk styled fashioned cloths and for example i got this image.

And with that image is that i vectorised and made the guy wearing the clothes look like a cartoon style drawing. I think this style that I’m going down will be good for my portfolio and good for the front cover of the creative review magazine. the reason why i used the colour green in the background is because the main colours when i think of steampunk is brown, green, gold, black, grey, etc. From this idea i will develop more interesting and better ideas to eventually create my final piece for the front cover design. i think the cartoon/vectorised image is more interesting than the normal stock image. Ignore the text at the bottom as i was experimenting with different text and 3d elements to see what fits the steampunk style.

More information about Steampunk

Steampunk as a genre is a nutshell. Steampunk has also cross-pollinated its way into other genres, so there is steampunk romance, steampunk erotica, and steampunk young adult fiction. And it isn’t just written fiction anymore. There are steampunk games (e.g. Bioshock II), steampunk graphic novels (e.g. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen), and even steampunk movies (e.g. Sherlock Holmes and Hell-boy) and TV shows (e.g. Warehouse 13). There is even steampunk music and steampunk performance art.

Steampunk however, has become a lot more bigger and interesting with all the cool contraptions in the subculture, it was only natural that some people would decide to make some of them (or at least things like them). Thus, steampunk gadgets came into the real world. People has “steampunk’d” everything from computers, desks, telephone, watches and guitars to cars, motorcycles, and whole houses. These objects can vary from a grungy look of a forgotten antique to the shiny overwrought newness of a Victorian gentleman’s club. Think brass and copper, glass and polished wood, engraving and etching, and details for the sake of details. So, steampunk is also a design aesthetic. This aesthetic design can carry over into personal style with both clothing and jewellery being made in a “steampunk” style. The clothes are not exactly Victorian, adding in technological bits or hints of a more adventurous life than a typical Victorian citizen likely enjoyed.

Steampunk has a philosophical angle to it as well, which is somewhat a combination between the maker ideals of creativity and self-reliance as well as the Victorian optimistic view of the future. This last bit has led to accusations that steampunk includes a fair amount of empire worship, which is a reasonable concern. Another criticism has been that steampunk focuses on the best of the past and quietly sweeps the bad past away.

Steampunk clothing choices

Steampunk’s fashion has no specific guidelines on what they wear but most of the styles they are mainly wear and portray is the modern styles with influences from back in the Victorian times. This would include people to wear: bustles, corsets, gowns, petticoats, suits with waistcoats, coats, top hates, tailcoats and many more.