Exhibit seven

Reading List: Layouts

Before Revision

revision Note

  • To change the color of the Summer Reading List Layout text to Black to provide both more contrast against the mustard background, and more repetition with the woman's hat.

  • With the Winter Reading List Layout text the text is repetitive to this format. The font is an off-white to provide contrast to the maroon background, and repetition with the woman's hair.

Background:

This layout is designed to be used for a librarian, school teacher, book club etc. It could be utilized to be posted on a bulletin board or on social media. Each season the layout would be easily adapted to be filled with three new books for readers to indulge in: a mystery, classic and inspirational work of literature. Whether the reader has a few weeks between a school semester or is reading over an entire season, at the end of the year using this layout, the reader will have read 12 books in 12 months.

Design:

  • Repetition: There is repetition in the font and in the colors used at the top and bottom of each layout for the rectangles. The repetition in the font helps to create a clear message since the images are bold steal a lot of attention. There is also repetition in the design from season to season with the texts in order from Left to Right: Mystery to Inspire, as well as photos of women with blurred literature in the back.

  • Alignment: A centered alignment was chosen for this piece to align the main character of the photo with the layout of the books. The space between the books is set within the layout to be equal as to not distract the consumer. The title is spread out to align from the center of one novel on the left to the other novel on the right to keep the centered effect. In the Winter layout the Woman is placed higher as the shelves lean in focusing towards the books at the bottom. On the summer layout the Woman is placed lower to give the effect she is looking at the books to place the focus again at the bottom.

  • Proximity: The proximity of the words to the books is to make it clear which book is what topic without needing much text on the page. With the strong imagery and a lot of text on the literature itself the message of the list needed to be intuitive without a lot of text thus proximity was crucial.

  • Color: This piece uses a dark red for Winter to match the red lipstick of the Woman in the photo, but also as a color often used representative of the season. In the Summer it uses a soft orange for a warmer Summer feel and to match the bookshelves in the photo. While there aren't many options with book cover designs, the designer did try to look for options when there were some to have the colors complement each other within the photos of the books.

  • Contrast: The main contrast is between the photography and bold filled in rectangles. This contrast is designed to give a story told through the imagery, but tell the consumer where to look for the key information.

  • Font Choice: I chose Century Gothic Font in all caps. I tried to make it a text that would not clash with any of the titles. I also helped emphasize the title by spreading out the wording even though it was the same font and font size as the other text in the layout.

Photoshop Skills Used:

  • Rectangle Shape to create placeholders for images in layouts and make it simple to fill for future use

  • Transform and warp for the classic photo of "Pride and Prejudice"

  • Patch Tool and Spot Healing Brush to edit the photo of the woman on the Summer Reading List to better fit the size of the layout

Credits: