Design Practice: Magazine Supplement Development and Test

Right... The Aperture Fall 2012 60th Anniversary supplement. After careful consideration I have started producing a Anniversary Supplement to go with the Fall 2012 Edition & given out at the auction/exhibition which happens to coincide with their birthday this October. I have gone through most of the magazine's and found my favourite headline articles that I feel reflect the magazine, this supplement is also geared to get more younger audiences involved with aperture.

The magazine is black and white other then the coloured stocks used, I found this a very useful way to make the magazine fit across the articles and it to some extent give it a feeling of age.

Stock

I have chosen to use Red stock for important Texts and Navigation. Why red? well red is suppose to signify the red lights in Dark rooms. This might be more relevant to photographers then designers. But it also gives a really nice contrast between normal pages.

I have chose off white 150 gms paper for the text, I prefer putting slightly off colours of paper for text because feels less harsh and easier to read, especially if you have large blocks of text flooding a page.

For the Image I decided to go for a crisp white card, putting as much focus on the single images as possible.

The variation between offwhite and white gives a good break between the text and image.

Scale

A3 Cut down, After wanting to produce an absolutely boss magazine from a A2 cut down I worked out that I'd have a sick magazine but i'd be poor as hell and if it didnt work It would be a massive waste of time and resources... So I scaled down to a A3 cut down per double which has worked out nicely.

Bind

I have broken up the book into a stich bind to allow the pages to fold flat so you can properly look at the photography. This has also allowed me to experiment with various coloured stocks within the book.

For now I have kept the cover basic, I am planning on screen printing or foiling the cover on either thick card to give the supplement some structure. Although this would make it harder to put in the post with the Fall 2012 magazine... so I might not and just keep it simple and foil it.

First page is a letter from the Chairman about the Aperture Foundation. The red stock should resemble a photography dark room and it also stands out superbly against the off white.

Context page's margins are a bit messed up, need to check this before next test print. The imagery underneath the main article flows onto the next page to resemble the article not being complete and moving onto the next page.

The balance between offwhite and white gives a nice separation between the content. I have used a combination of 2 typefaces to show the difference in conversation in the dialogue. Tons of leading to aid readability.

Simple, nothing to confuse the imagery.

I have now used the red stock to start the next article, because its only a small intro to the portfolio project, I decided to keep it off the imagery, this way the images can be viewed with no distraction.