Double Page Spread: Research + Development

This is my research and development of double page spreads for my magazine project

Reflection

Doing this double page research was really time-consuming and when I was about to do my second analysis for my second magazine, I lost quite the motivation to continue it as I'm answering the same type and amount of questions I had just spent a long time in which led to me procrastinating it to the day before It was due, which I realized was a big mistake as during that period of time before it was due, there were other big assignments from other classes that I had to prioritize too. Not only that, I was quite overwhelmed that I had to do this much research just for my double-page alone and this may be due to the fact that I never did in-detail research like this in my other IGCSE subjects before. The main problem I dealt with was my own bad time-management that I'm progressively trying to fix as I know that in this class, there will be upcoming big projects such as this that requires my full attention and determination whether I enjoy it or not. Even though I did loose my motivation to complete this, I thankfully completed it in the end and I see this as really helpful as I'm analyzing magazines within the same genre as my own magazine project. It even included Bali as one of their travel destinations, similar to what I will include in my magazine. They gave me multiple inspirations and ideas to what I want to use and put in such as the layout of the images, the images I want to use, and most importantly, ideas for the topic of my article as I had problems with how I'm going to start my article since this is the first time I'm making it. 

Before Reading
Magazine:	Linkers Citilink Inflight Magazine
Issue:	November 2019
Publisher:	Citilink Airline Company
Genre:	Travel (Asian Countries)
Images:	1 big extreme long shot image of a great number of people in Kuta Beach that occupies ¾ of the double page
Layout	There’s a minimal amount of text in the layout of this double page spread as most of the page is occupied by the image. This makes it look more simple and light as there aren’t many words and it is placed above a white background that makes it visually appealing as there aren’t any overcrowding and colors crashing against each other. The page number is on the bottom of the page, therefore it doesn’t hinder or cover any of the information above it.
First impressions:	I like how the image takes ¾ of the double page and the text only takes up ¼ of it. By doing this, it makes it less boring for me as considering that it’s a travel magazine, I would prefer visuals rather than having to read word after word describing the travel destination.
After Reading
Heading:	Night Market hingga Beachwalk Shopping Centre  When translated to English: Night Market to Beachwalk Shopping Center
Subheading:	This article does not have a subheading
Author:	There is no byline present and no photographer written anywhere near the photo placed in the article.
Article:	This article gives information about the various shopping destinations and nightlife activities in Bali, specifically in the areas of Kuta, Seminyak, Canggu, and Sanur. The message concluded from this article is that the nightlife activities in Bali is not just about going clubbing and going to popular cafes in the areas mentioned, but there are other options one being both shopping and dining in Sindu Night Market in Sanur that offers Bali’s traditional foods and Indonesian Street Foods which tourists may find delightful.
Mode of address:	This article is written in an informal and friendly tone where it uses simple, light, and easily understandable words that gives off a sense of being in a conversation instead of reading an informative text. However, the article does not directly address the audience using the pronouns “you” or “your”.
Pull Quote:	This article does not include a pull quote
Audience:	This article doesn’t explicitly show who they are targeting except that generally, it would be for tourists since it’s a travel magazine that is describing specific tourist destination spots and the experience that comes with it, where this would naturally attract tourists whether it’d be foreigners or locals. However in terms of language, since it is written entirely in Indonesian, it may be mainly targeted towards Indonesian citizens (demographics) outside of Bali that are looking to find a vacation destination that is still inside the country. To support this further, this magazine is written under the Citilink Airline Company which originated from Indonesia.
Impression:	I think this article is fun to read as It minimizes the amount of words and focuses on the image instead as it fills up ¾ of the page, therefore making it more attractive. It doesn’t bore me as they use simple words and they do not write overly detailed information which in result, makes the text brief and not complicated to read.
Inspiration:	I learned how colors, layouts, and designs play a really important role when it comes to attracting the readers as it has to be visually appealing to them, otherwise they will get bored easily and stop reading halfway. I will most likely apply the same white background used in this magazine in my own magazine so that no color crashes into each other and not only that, If i were to add any pull quotes colored texts, I should make it color coordinated or use colors within the same color palette with the image on the page, just like the design of this magazine.
Call to Action	There were multiple mentionings of the same website which is www.citilink.co.id. By providing this, in the case where they are attracted towards the content of the magazine and want to travel to the destinations described, the readers may feel the need to go to the website to access additional information or even use it to book travel itineraries. This magazine also includes a list of products with discounted prices to encourage readers to buy their products while there’s still a discount so that they can buy what they like with a lower price.
Caption	In this double page, the caption of the picture is on the bottom left of the image. This provides the readers with direct information of the location of the image and avoids leaving them clueless of what image they are seeing. The placement on the bottom left of the image doesn’t disturb or clash onto the visuals of the image itself too.

Before Reading
Magazine:	Linkers Citilink Inflight Magazine
Issue:	March 2020
Publisher:	Citilink Airline Company
Genre:	Travel (In Indonesia)
Images:	There are 4 images in total where there is one main image that covers the middle of the upper section of the double page, though leaving a significant amount of space between the image and the border. This one main image is a photo of a cultural heritage from an unknown origin as there are no captions or bylines supporting the image. There are 2 small pictures that fill the space left from the main image showcasing 2 other cultural heritages, one known as Huta Siallagan and the other known as Huta Bolon Simanindo. The last picture is also a small image of Lake Toba, one of the natural travel destination spots that is near the region where the other 2 cultural heritages are located.
Layout	There’s a significant amount of text that is placed to follow the layout of the images where it flows according to where the image is placed and not only that, the space between the texts and the borders of the page is quite far. In addition to that, there are no drop caps. All this gives the design a clean, less crowded, and light look which is more visually pleasing to the eyes and therefore, it will feel more satisfying and delightful to read. It's neither heavy nor light in text but instead, it's the perfect amount to not leave the readers bored from reading a lot of text and instead, they would still be engaged to continuously read more about the culture and history being described throughout the text. This helps balance the article where the readers can equally focus on both the image and the information provided and not feel overwhelmed in the case where the article is filled mainly with text and display little amount of pictures.
First impressions:	I really like how they incorporate social media layouts into the design of the article’s images as It makes it more fun and interesting to go through. This is the first time I’ve seen a magazine do this, therefore it’s quite unique to me. Because of these reasons, the moment I saw this layout, I immediately considered using it in my own magazine.
After Reading
Heading:	There is no heading present in the article
Subheading:	Huta Siallagan and Museum Huta Bolon Simanindo
Author:	There are 3 pictures displayed in the format of an Instagram post and they used the user layout to display the photographer and the specific location of where the images are taken.
Article:	The article is about multiple culture related travel destinations in one specific region where it describes the places in general and how the culture is embedded in it. The message concluded from the article is to provide specific information about those places and in addition to that, they also highlight clearly their features to immerse the readers into the culture, history, and tradition from the heritages presented.
Mode of address:	This article is written in a neutral form, where it’s neither informal nor formal. It just serves to inform the readers with descriptions of a variety of culture related locations and the cultures related to it. Though when it comes to talking about the cultural and historical facts, it flows to a more formal and serious tone as again, it’s related to history which should be respected and not taken lightly. However, the article does not address the audience directly using pronouns such as “you” or “your”.
Pull Quote:	There are no pull quotes in this article.
Audience:	Based on this double-page article alone, the target audience would be people who want to experience and immerse themselves in Indonesia’s culture, history, and tradition. They should be culture or history enthusiasts as the article emphasizes several in-depth cultural understandings and aspects where it uses quite complicated wordings, which typically would be more understandable and suited for culture or history enthusiasts as they would already be used to it due to a broad exposure of historical/cultural terms. However, in terms of language, since the entire magazine is in Indonesian, it may be mainly targeted towards Indonesian citizens (demographics) outside of Bali that are looking to find a vacation destination that is still inside the country. To support this further, this magazine is written under the Citilink Airline Company which originated from Indonesia.
Impression:	Personally, if it weren’t for the numerous pictures displayed across not only this double-page, but the entire magazine, It would have bored me as the texts supporting these pictures are quite long and in addition to that, the majority of it was about culture and history, a topic I’m not quite interested in. Therefore, I was more engaged with the pictures and that was the only reason that made me continue reading the articles.
Inspiration:	I learned that managing the amount of text I put in my double page spreads is important, where I have to keep it balanced between the text and the images. This is as if there’s too much text in one whole column and no physical divider (such as images between the paragraphs), this may lead to boredom and readers will find the magazine less engaging. I was really inspired when they used Instagram layouts for their pictures as it is a fun design and therefore, visually striking to me. Because of this, I will most likely use this kind of layout for some of my own pictures in my magazine.
Call to Action	There were multiple mentioning of the same website which is www.citilink.co.id. By providing this, in the case where they are attracted towards the content of the magazine and want to travel to the destinations described, the readers may feel the need to go to the website to access additional information or even use it to book travel itineraries. This magazine also includes a list of products with discounted prices to encourage readers to buy their products while there’s still a discount so that they can buy what they like with a lower price. This magazine and the first magazine I analyzed consists of the same call to actions, taking into account it comes from the same company.
Caption	In this double page, the caption for their pictures in the form of Instagram layouts, where this is more fun and engaging as the readers can directly go to their Instagram account to find out more about the destinations and the traveler themselves.

This is my Double Page Spread Development Idea

Double page spread

My initial idea is to feature the famous tourist destinations and traditional food sellers or cafes, with a white background under the text as it gives the content a light, minimalist, and modern look. I plan to have one big landscape image spread across 2 pages that fills 3/4 of the page from left to right with an addition of a picture of the traditional food/snack or seafood with the same image ratio that fills the rest 1/4 of the page with a significant amount of space between it and the big image. In addition to this, I will add information about that certain image under it that also spreads across the 2 pages. The white background in the double page will contrast to the color of the black colored texts and the pictures therefore making them stand out more and look clearer to the readers. For another double page, I plan to have one big image that fills 1/2 of the upper part of the double page but placed in the middle and little pictures of the planned images above in the layout of Instagram posts, similar to the one I researched about in my double page research blog. This is so that it stands out than other travel magazines as other than the one i researched, most of them uses the same type of format for their images. However, even though It will be a unique and fun design, it will more likely attract younger audiences therefore, this will be an idea I will be contemplating as my main target audience are old people and having the pictures in an Instagram post format will not really suit their preferences as typically, they are not really familiar with social media. 

This is my final research and development for my double page spread development

Research

I researched multiple minimalistic travel magazines in Google and Pinterest to find their genre conventions and similarities in order to gain ideas for my own double page spread, similar to my front cover and contents page as I plan to follow their genre conventions as well. These are the result of my research. 

After looking at a number of minimalistic travel double page spreads such as the ones above, here are the things that I noticed: 

1. Heading

The colors of the heading of almost all the double page spreads I've gathered from both Google and Pinterest are in black accompanied by either a sharp font or a normal calm font such as Sans Serif in capital letters. This is so that they stand out against all the other texts around them as it serves as the main summary or idea of the entire magazine article and may be used to pique the interest of the readers. 

2. Subheading 

Their subheadings are most of the time bolded as well to differentiate it with the article text as they are typically the same font size. This is to more easily capture the reader's attention directly towards the general summary of the contents of the article, just for example, in a more playful language such as the usage of imageries to persuade and attract them to continue reading. 

3. Caption of Image and Byline of author or photographer 

All of them don't have a caption relating to the images whether it'd be outside of the image or inside the image. The reason to this may be to preserve the clean and undisturbed look stereotyped by the minimalistic genre. 

4. Article

Often times, their articles contain drop caps in the beginning of the paragraph in the same font as the headline and in a bigger font size than the rest of the article. This may be to avoid the readers from being overwhelmed from the large amount of words, especially when the article is quite long in one pace. Not only that, their article strictly follows a 2-3 column guide for the readers to easily read within the flow o the columns and to make the appearance neater and more organized as well. 

5. Negative space 

There are significant amount of negative in between the images in order for them to not clash and join together. 

6. Page numbers

- Their page numbers are often time in a small font, typically in the same size as the article, and are placed on either corners of the pages without any outlines or added elements to it. 

7. Website links 

- During my research, since the pictures weren't scanned in detailed, it was difficult for me to notice whether they have website links or not. however they most likely have a few possibly relating to airlines, maps of locations, booking and reservations to increase reader interaction. 

Thumbnail Sketches

After that research, I will create thumbnail sketches as a foundation of my ideas in developing my double page spread. It is completely different to my initial idea as I didn't take into account how long my article it since I made this research and development post before I finished up my article. Thus, my idea didn't work out and I have to create new ones. Below are the result of my thumbnail sketches.

I took inspiration from one of my researches as I thought that the 3/4 image spreading horizontally looks really nice and I would like to try it out. There are less images too compared to my other sketches and this resulted in a more minimal and clean layout. Therefore, I will develop this. 

At first glance, this look way more crowded than it should be, especially when I'm going for a minimalistic style. I think this looks too overwhelming even for me as the producer, therefore I won't develop this further. 

I came up with this sketch before I started my research and compared to the other 2, it really showed how important the research was for me as I had to stick with the genre conventions this sketch was lacking in. However, I'll develop this as I can still make it look minimalistic with some improvements. 

Development

After doing the thumbnail sketches, I will experiment and develop further 1 of my sketches digitally to be used as my final double page spread. Here are the results. 

Here's a canva link as the image is unclear: 

https://www.canva.com/design/DAF9inN816g/1ffR8IUEWVrDTOFWFryLIA/edit?utm_content=DAF9inN816g&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

Self-Reflection

For me, making the double page spread was way more exhausting than the front cover and contents page as they were just 1 page layout. On the other hand, I have to design the layouts to match both pages so they can look good side-by-side. I disliked how I managed my time in doing this as I expected to it take more or less the same time to finish as my front cover and contents as I already have my magazine article done and the sketches as well. However, I had to modify things and because I was overwhelmed, I was lost on what to do, which made the entire process even longer as I didn't know how to continue. Thankfully, I was able to ask for advices from my friends and my dad when I continued to do the work at home, where they led me in changing and improving the fonts and layouts. When my friends complimented the first page of my double page spread, it really increased my motivation to continue as well. Because of that experience, I will definitely avoid procrastinating as much as I can as I know better now that I'll just be doing everything that I've piled up altogether whilst being chased by the deadline. 

I consulted with my teacher for feedbacks to improve my work before the deadline of this magazine and here are some changes I made for my final double-page spread. 

*As the images are screenshotted, they are pretty unclear, so I have attached a link before for a clearer image. 

In this page I changed: 

1. Moved page number to the bottom edges of the page

When I researched for travel magazine double-page spread examples, they all had their page numbers on the bottom edges of the pages. Therefore, I decided to follow these conventions and edited my page numbers into the same layout. 

2. Move the image caption inside the images

When I looked back to the overall layout, it was really crowded as my text is quite long. My decision on making the image caption below the images made it worse therefore I had to put it inside to increase the amount of white space since my targeted design is minimalistic. 

3. Changed the subhead from "Golden Beaches" to "Golden Sands" 

My teacher advised me that it would sound better and more inviting to not be repeating the "beach" word and instead give other variations since I already have it on my subhead as well. 

4. Moved the drop cap downwards to fit it inside the paragraph 

I had my drop cap going up from the text and it didn't look right. I took a look at travel magazine double page spreads with drop caps and they had their drop caps fit inside the paragraph in which this made it look more organized as it looks like it follows a margin. Thus, I decided to follow this convention as well. 

*As the images are screenshotted, they are pretty unclear, so I have attached a link before for a clearer image. 

In this page I changed: 

Other than the same changes such as page numbers, image captions, and drop cap like Sanur's page, I changed: 

1. Added the missing words 

I cross checked my work with my friend sitting beside me and she pointed out that one of my sentences are cut off in which it was supposed to be "from South Eastern countries all the way to American and European countries that may feed your home-sick feeling..." to "from South Eastern countries all the...may feed your home-sick feeling". However because I was trying to make the margin of the paragraphs equal, I wasn't careful and didn't realize that I had cut off a few words. 

2. Changed the typography and place of "author"

My teacher gave me feedback that the placement of the text "author" looked off and that the typography didn't match the rest of the paragraph above it as well. I tried to move it to different places and figured that below the subheading looked the least off-putting though I still feel like it does not fit there. I made the typography the same as my subheading's though without the italics and bold to still make the subheading stand out. 

The final look:

Self-Reflection

I realized the importance of peer checking as I wasn't careful enough even when I double-checked it myself. My friends and teacher was able to point out the silly mistakes I did and I got to fix and improve it. When I looked back to the final result of the double-page spread, I found out that it was a good idea that I increase the font size of the text as I asked my target audience directly to what they would prefer from the draft options and they told me that most of the people in their age group typically have eye problems, having the font size bigger helped them read better and more easily. Because of this, I decided to subvert to the conventions for travel magazine in which they typically have large amount of texts in a small font size in order to fit the entire text in.