Designing the London DPS

I first began to design this feature by planning the DPS with a rough sketch. 

I'm unsure if I like this design. I haven't yet used a full bleed on a DPS yet and I am not sure if it would divert from the theme I have chosen to pursue for this magazine. I also think that laying text over full bleeds is often difficult because it isn't always easy to read and I don't want to article to be illegible. 

I like this design but I think that the amount of text I have will not fit on this limited design. I think that there would be too much white space here as the article is short and I think that the text wouldn't lay as  I want it too. 

This is the favourited design. I think that the images would fit nicely in this order and I think that the text space will fit what the commission required. I think that having three images that link with one another will allow the DPS to flow with the arrangement of the text and I think that by having lots of images I will attract the readers attention to the inner country holiday review. 

To make the London DPS I decided to begin to search for images first. Having googled the word London, these were the first images that stood out to me.

I liked the air of sophistication that this picture connoted and I think that it would be a nice classic image to have on the page. Despite this, I am unsure if this image really conveys the city of London, despite the classiness of the image, I think it says more... New York or Paris than London.

I also like this image because the importance of Big Ben and the famousness of it in connection with the city, it is a main image that I feel portays London with the lights conveying a feeling of speed that many associate with the capital.

I also thought that the St Paul's Cathederal is also an inesteresting picture to have, but I don't know if I really like it is it isn't colourful or particularly aspiring, perhaps this is the grey sky or the dirtiness of the dome. 

Using these images I arranged this page. I am not sure if it looks quite right with the one colourful image and the rest being slightly... dirty. So I may have to experiement a little more to find images that are more suited to the main picture. 

Similarly I am unsure about the arrangement of the title and Stand first. 

I am uncertain on whether or not  to have black gradient on title or to have it blue to add some more colour into image. I think I prefer the blue but may in fact change the font itself as I'm unsure if it goes with the page.

Having decided that the pages needed more colour I then decided to add different images to link with the main Big Ben image in the bottom right corner. To suit the red I decided that an iconic image would be best and found this to suit my purposes.

Source

Source

I thought that having an image of the natural history museum was important because it is a main topic of the article, I feel that these images are more suitable to the articles content and theme. This image also, as does the one above, connotes the general feel of the city, portraying it's sense of structure, its age and timelessness and the beauty within the ancient architecture.

Similarly, having taken a closer look at the font I decided that I no longer liked the font Helvetica for the purposes of this page and so decided to use the font Poor Richard for the title and Stand first, keeping the title blue but changing the Stand first to black. I think that this provides the feature with a more sophisticated and city feel.

I like this version now that the title has been changed and I do fell that the images now really convey a certain feel that I think about when thinking about London. I think that it shows London a lot more than the first selection of images chosen did. I also think that the images now compliment each other as well with the reds and the yellows and the blues that influenced the colour of the title. I feel though that it is possible that something needs to be done to make it a little more interesting. 

Whist experimenting with this page I made the stand first so align in a more square so that the indentation at the end was no longer there making it look more professional and cleaner. I also added indents to the top and bottoms of each paragraph to allow the reader a chance to take a break every so often while reading. I also bled the images so that they fell over the margins. I think that this makes the pages more colourful and interesting to look at than the previous design. 

I really like this page because I think while it is as clean as previous the other designs featuring in the magazine I think that the images make it look just as interesting to the eye. I feel that the images perfectly portray the city and that they link to the features content. I think like that the authors name features again in the stand first because it gets rid of the messy "words by" that is usually a feature in magazines. I like this page because I think that it is sophisticated and suits the magazines theme.