Exercise 2: Double-page spread

This two part exercise aims to understand the relationship between typography, the grid, and the page in more depth by analysing existing layouts and creatively developing alternative ones. Both of these activities will feed into assignment three.

Understanding layouts

Research into book layouts that you find interesting. These could be art or design books, or others that have more complex layouts that balance images, typography and other content across multiple columns. Trace the grid structure of your chosen double-page spread using tracing paper

and a sharp pencil. Measure the margins, column width and depth, plus spaces between the columns. Transcribe the tracing onto a clean sheet of paper, drawing on the measurements. Compare your drawings to other double-page spreads within the same publication. Identify the similarities and differences - is there an underlying grid system and how does it adapt to deal with different content?

Now recreate the same double-page spread using DTP software. Use your traced drawing measurements as a guide. There is no need to copy out all the text – you can use ‘dummy’ text or ‘blurb’ such as lorem ipsum . Lorem ipsum is Latin text which has a distribution of letters

that make it look like readable English. You can download some from www.lipsum.com and incorporate it into your layout.

Similarly, there is no need to recreate the images – indicate images by a 10% shaded area, whether these are cut-out, full-bleed or within a box. Try to match the typeface as closely as possible. It doesn’t need to be exactly the same, but try to retain something of the original – for example, make sure you use a sans-serif font if the original is sans-serif.

Extend the project by thinking about how you might radically change these layouts - what creative decisions around the grid would you make to improve these designs? Develop layout ideas that ignore the grid structure, challenge it, or offer radical alternatives to the existing layouts. Develop a range of ideas through thumbnail drawings and DTP layouts, in a similar way to the first part of

the exercise. Use this as an opportunity to take creative risks, and find radically different ways to layout the existing content. This process might challenge any preconceived rules about how a layout should normally work. Reflect on the process in your learning log.

Understanding Layouts

I looked around the house for a variety of books and publications that would show different layouts.

I took very rough images of the insides of the books and magazines I found, imported them into Adobe InDesign, and, very roughly, with 50% opacity, tried to figure out the grid used.

A magazine double page spread with three columns. (Six columns for the DPS)

A newspaper layout with six columns.

A coffee table book with two columns. (Four columns for the DPS)

A design textbook with two columns but a different width. (Four columns for the DPS)

A travel guide with three columns (Six columns for the DPS)

I didn't take the photos particularly straight, but I could still see where the grids were used.

Chosen Double Page Spread

For my chosen double-page spread, I used this image from one of my travel guides. I chose this because it has both text and photographs.

I traced the grid structure of this page and measured the margins, columns and other spaces in mm.

I compared this drawing to the other pages in the book and found that they all followed the same structure of three columns, the photographs were spread over one column or two depending on the size of the photograph.

Recreating the double-page spread in InDesign

I really enjoyed recreating the double-page spread in Adobe InDesign. I took my measurements from the traced copy of the physical book and set up InDesign with the margins, gutter, columns and the alleys (the space between a column of text on a page). I then added in the shaded boxes to indicate where the images would go and created placeholder text for the layout. I then changed the body copy to sans-serif and the title and introduction to serif. I then aligned all of my text to a baseline grid.

A sample of the finished double-page spread.

Experimental Layouts

I was quite excited to try new layouts and push the boundaries by creating alternative layouts. I kept the four-column structure but didn't necessarily adhere to the rigid grid. I came up with these thumbnail experiments on paper.

From these experiments, I chose a few more to develop on the computer. I used Adobe InDesign to recreate the layouts.

For this layout, I wanted to try to put the title in a different place and make it bigger.

For this layout, I centred the title and wrapped the text around the information box and title. The image takes up the opposite page. I don't think this would work unless I change the width, as the readability might be difficult around the text wrapping.

For this layout, I wanted to change the shape, instead of playing it safe and using rectangles and squares. I angled the image box so the look is more triangular.

For this layout, I pushed the triangular look further by changing the direction of the text.

Reflection

I enjoyed this exercise as it encouraged me to think about various layouts in different publications. A magazine will have a different layout from a novel. For example, you wouldn't use a modular grid for a novel since it is text-heavy. However, a grid would be very helpful in a magazine that combines text and images. Collecting different layout examples from a range of books, such as a coffee table book, magazine, design book, newspaper and travel guide, and analysing the types of grids used was beneficial because it forced me to look more closely at how various publications use grids for their content.

I felt good about recreating my chosen layout in InDesign, paying careful attention to measurements and document setup, including margins, columns, gutters and alleys. While recreating my layout, I used two grids, a three-column grid and a baseline grid.

When it came to experimenting with layouts without a grid, I was initially uncertain about how to proceed. I used the three-column grid as a guideline, but gradually became more confident about changing the direction of the text and images. I liked the results of this experiment. I realised that grids are there to guide you, and it's ultimately up to me whether to rigidly stick to the grid or to take a more flexible approach. However, I believe that the nature of the content being laid out also influences this decision, the more content there is, the more flexibility you might have.