Last but not least, the double page spread

Drum roll please

As promised in my last post, here is my double-page spread:

You might be able to tell that I didn't end up sticking exactly to what I had planned a couple of posts ago. This is because when I tried designing those sketches on Illustrator, the fonts didn't look good and it was coming out different from what I had planned. Instead of using those designs, I came up with a new concept that was loosely based on those. I decided to keep the words together and not hyphenate them to avoid confusion (also because it just looked weird). Something I kept from my original design however, was using two different fonts. I also made them different colors in order to give the page a bit more dynamic. This is something I have seen in several magazines I have looked at. Furthermore, by putting some fonts in different colors, I get the opportunity to establish a color scheme throughout the piece, which gives it cohesion. In this case, I chose green because of the limes. Something else I did with the fonts was placing the letters that went over the picture in a semi transparent box, so that they didn't take away from the picture but still stood out. As for maintaining the conventions of my genre, I decided to place the title, author name and main picture all in one side of the article, leaving room for all the text in the next page. This is something I have not only seen in the layout of food magazines but also in fashion and lifestyle magazines that are in the realm of high end magazines.

The picture I used was purposely taken with all the subjects in the middle thirds, so that it could be cropped without losing anything. I decided to use only one picture so that it wouldn't take away from the use of the illustrations and the fonts on the next page. I also think it makes the article to look less cluttered. 

As for the layout of the text, I chose to do two columns since this is a common arrangement in most magazines. I prefaced the recipe with a small introduction, then indicated the start of the recipe with a change of font and color that followed through until the last step. The steps are guided by arrows to show progression. I also made the first letter of each paragraph large to draw attention and add depth to the design. I learned that this is called a drop cap and that it is used for decorative purposes.

Overall, I am happy with the way it turned out. Perhaps it could be more fine tuned but as is it looks very professional.

This concludes all the components of my magazine!!! Finally! I will soon post it all together and without grids or anything.