Two Page Spread Planning

Planning for Two-Page Spread

In this post I will be brainstorming three possible layouts for my two-page spread based on my previous research on how articles typically are written conventionally in video game magazines. 

Draft #1

Starting with the title of the article, I placed it at the top of the page for readability and placed the title in the center of the page because in my research of articles that was very common. I placed a drop cap as the first word of the introduction paragraph because it was something present in every article I looked at as I stated in Writing Style and Audience. I have a heading and then a column of text under it and next to the column a pull quote, and then a continuation of the text from before. The pull quote was added because like I stated before in Writing Style and Audience, pull quotes are extremely common and are often used to grab the readers' attention. I placed two images under the text with a caption to describe them. I plan for these images to be connected as they will compare the button layout of two different types of controllers. The page numbers will be at the bottom of the page, on the bottom right for the page on the right and the bottom left for the left page.  I will place a large image on the right, this image will be the hands of two people playing a video game, the two people using the two different controllers being compared in the article. Under that image I will have a heading and more text, an image of more controllers will be next to this column, and under that will be the continuation of the text. I will have a heading under the column and text under that finishing with the byline. For the color scheme I think I will go for white and blue/cyan on black, this is because it is the same color scheme that I used in the table of contents so it will create a visual connection between the articles. I plan to use two to three sans-serif fonts for the text, most likely one or two fonts for the important text like the title and headings, and one font for the normal text and captions.

I plan for the title to be read first and the image on the left to be seen right after so that a connection will be made in the reader's mind to solidify the subject of the article. Next, after reading the reader's attention will be caught by the pull quote which I plan to be a very opinionated statement because the article is about a debate. Then the reader will read the text, look at the images which will further the article and then they will read the text on the other page, see the image relating to the text and then finish the article and see the byline.

Draft #2

For the title, I put it at the top and had it formatted so that it was on the left edge of the page. This was less common, but I saw it in some articles during my research. I started the article with a drop cap because it was always used in my research. There is the rest of the paragraph of text after the drop cap and this is also left aligned like the title to create some uniformity. There is a column of text with an underlined heading to give it some importance. More text follows and then another box of text with an underlined heading. Under the two columns is a pull quote which will be from one of the paragraphs of text and will be large enough and close enough to the text to catch the reader's attention. Page number would go in the bottom left corner on the left page and the bottom right corner on the right because it is conventional. The majority of the right page will be taken up by the large image, which I plan to be an image of the hands of two people playing a video game, the two people using the two different controllers being compared in the article like in the first drafts. Under the image will be a continuation of the text in a column. Next to this will be a wider column of text with another underlined heading, ending with a byline under it because in my research bylines were often at the end of the article. The color scheme I plan to use will be a dark gray background, with a blue color for the accent and white text because it will match the images that will be used. I will use one serif font for the title and two sans-serif fonts for the headings, pull quote, and normal text. The serif font will invoke an intelligent feel, and the sans-serif fonts will be to feel more modern, as previously said in Psychology of Fonts.

Similar to the first draft I plan for the title to be read first in this layout, I plan for the first paragraph to be emboldened so it will most likely get read after that. The large image crosses over to the other page slightly and this is to make it more eye-catching so it would likely be viewed soon after and the main idea of the article will be solidified in the readers' minds. The pull quote should catch the readers' attention with an attention-grabbing statement and then the text will be read from left to right as normal and will finish with the byline of the author's name.

Draft #3

The left page of this layout is much different from the first two, it starts with a series of images and captions with a large central image at the bottom that crosses the edge of the pages slightly. This was an idea that challenges conventions because it puts the images on the other side to inform the reader with visual information before information through text. The images will compare the two controllers and be the main image of the hands of two people playing a video game, the two people using the two different controllers being compared in the article. There are page numbers in the two corners of each page. The title on the right will be centered at the top of the page so that it is clearly visible.  The byline will be right under the title so it will be immediately apparent to the reader. There will be two columns of text separated by headings and the first paragraph will be started with a drop cap. I am considering a white background with cyan for important text and black for normal text. I will use two to three sans-serif fonts to invoke a modern feel in the article. 

As stated before, my plan for this article layout is for the images to provide the reader with immediate visual information about the article and then they would look at the next biggest thing in the spread, the title and form a complete mental idea of the article. I chose to not have a pull quote in this design because all of the eye-catching has already been done by the images. Then, the reader would read the rest of the article normally and the captions would provide further insight into the images.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the method I used to create the drafts worked well creating mostly conventional two-page spreads. I am leaning towards Draft #2 because I think it is very conventional, but I may add some features of Draft #1 to it to make it even better. I have high hopes for my final design of the two-page spread.