Here is the unfolding of my Haunted Britain design plan.
(This is the favoutired design)
I started off having the body copy arranged like this. With this image beneath it. A little faded.
(Source)
Unfortunately this image was too busy and didn't fit nicely with the text, nor did it really have anything to do with the features content, unfortunately, so I decided to use the map image seen in a previous post.
I then added the map picture as seen below in the space on the second page, unhappy with this I added a background image but, I felt that the page was too crowded and decided to reconsider the amount of pages used so that the page was laid out like so:
So having tried to find a suitable image I decided that this might be a suitable image if it could be darkened. It is a staircase found in the ruins of Berry Pomeroy castle so it suits the content and the stairway could represent the ghostly feel I want the page to have.
So, using the program Fotor as perviously used I played around with the effects, making it slightly black and white and lowering the contrast, brightness and exposure.
On reconsideration, I decided to use this image instead which originally looked like this:
I decided to do this because I didn't feel that the stair image really meant anything. It didn't affect me as the other did and I want all my images to be interesting to look at. I then edited it to look like this because I thought it had a little bit of an eerier feel to it. I also thought that by adding this slightly grey/brown tinge I was allowing it to fit better with the image of the brown/yellow map.
I am pleased with this edit because I feel that it is more interesting that the stair image and it relates more the the features content. It is the gate to one of the featured places and the sky makes it appear eerie and foreboading. I also think that this image is more appropriate because it is a ghost hunt and the old fashioned gates sort of connote a old and perhaps trapped feeling. I think that it is a lot more of an appropriate image than the previously considered images. I also feel that this image has that subtle feel I wanted for this less large but equally as important image.
Placing these features together, I got this.
This design was unexpected as I hadn't thought I may need three pages rather than two. I was happy with this design. However, having printed it out in a trial print I decided there was a few things I wanted to change.
I realised that "road trip" had been spelt "roadtrip" which was incorrect. I was also unhappy with the formality of the title font and I also decided that I wanted to add a stand first and stretch the title so that it spanned the top of the DPS. This would mean that I would need to decrease the size of the map image and I wanted to line up the text more suitably. I also need to add the image credit and page numbers.
Which led to these changes taking place - minus the page numbers.
Having changed the font of the title, the arrangement of the text and the size of the main image I still feel like something is missing. I may perhaps move the second image so that it is more central on the third page so that it's caption is moved to the side and not in the middle as it is. I also need to repair the mistake made to the first page's grid as I feel that the gap is too large to use as white space.
Having done this and added a few more finishing touches like the magazine title at the bottom of each page this is the most recent end result.
As you can see I changed the title fonts to Helvetica to suit the rest of the features and I elongated the stand first so that it stretched across the page. I also added a drop cap to make the page look more interesting and keeping in theme with the New Zealand feature I decided to categorise the paragraphs so that they were in the road maps order. I then categorised them so that they were under the headings of their county. I thought this was important to the look and organisation of the page. I also moved the second image to the bottom of the page because I felt that it looked nicer this way. I am a lot happier with this version of the feature and I think that it is more in keeping with the design of my other features.
*Edit**
Having reviewed my other pages I decided that some changes to this page were needed. In order to create this, making it suit the other features better.
As you can see I removed the "words by..." and placed the feature's author name into the stand first as with the others and I also moved the image source to the inner margin on the second page. I think that this looks nicer because it suits the other designs and it removes clutter from the page. The changes are minimal but I think it is worth the extra time and effort as now they are, I think, more suited to the other and more refined features. I also enlarged the title slightly so that it was more eye-grabbing. I like this page because it is different. Until the others it has a different and less clean theme. Though the background is still white the images are almost dirty with their brown tinges. But it works because of the feature's content. The eeriness of the topic needs that darker tone while it still remains in the theme of the other pages. I think that the colour of the titles, taken directly from the map image, integrates the image and the text together, which is important because I think that the yellow/brown tinge of the image would be too different to fit with the feature. I also like that it spans across the three pages rather than just being a double page spread. If I had more time to create on, I would have like to make an advert for that fourth page as I could not find an already created single page advert for any inner country travel companies, like stagecoach, megabus, crosscountry trains or national rail adverts, which is a shame as it would have gone perfectly in that space.
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