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Why did you choose the story?

I chose the story on Japanese denim because of a personal interest and for a design strategy. I have been a denim addict ever since I purchased my first Japanese denim. I realized that jeans can do more than just looking nice; wearing that perfect jeans with the right cut can make your whole outfit ten times better. Japanese denim are famous for this reason, they make you feel like you own the jeans as if they had been customized for your body. The artisans spend endless hours studying and analyzing all body types of people and their efforts are truly reflected on the jeans they sell. Japanese denim aren’t just typical denim, they are a work of art created by denim artisans who strive to be perfect.

Another reason I chose the story is because there aren’t magazines that target denim lovers. Also I felt that putting pictures of denim on a white spread sheet would really stand bold and strong. I chose oversized photos of jeans for this purpose.

Designs:

The cover page was designed to give off a neat and organized vibe. The colors were chosen with specific purposes. For instance, for the header I used red and black which are strong colors, and the body text is in white on a black background to show a strong contrast look. The rule of the third is applied to the layout; the picture was placed on the left side of the page to make it more interesting. The man’s eyes are leveled with the header to lead the reader’s to the header. I decided to bleed the picture because I felt that positioning the picture in the middle of the magazine is mundane.

The first spread has a huge picture that bleed off the edges and to the other page. This is done to capture the reader’s attention and to keep the reader’s interested to the story. The picture is also high quality and effective, and it strongly connects to the story. The small computer icon next to the author’s name is to indicate that the story was originally written on the internet by the author. The circular icon with jeans was placed behind the text to reinforce the reader what the story is about.

The second spread was designed with a layout that effectively guides reader’s eyes to the entire page. The text starts off from the left side and down, and then to the right side of the page and down; the pictures are placed to guide the reader in this way.

The layout design includes bold lines and dotted lines that bound texts and pictures around the edges, and grids and guidelines (although not shown) that organize the text and pictures in certain ways.

Typefaces:

The typefaces in this magazine are Lucida Sans TT, Eurostile, and ITC Caslon 224 Std. Lucida Sans TT was chosen because it was a sans serif font that really distinguished itself from the body text. Lucida Sans TT is used for the header, folio, and captions. Eurostile is another sans serif that I chose for the deck. It had a lower case “e” that I could make a face out of with two dots as eyes. And because the title is “Evolution of Jeans”, making a face with the letter e would give a human attribute to jeans which I thought tied really nicely to the article. ITC Caslong 224 Std was chosen for the body text because in class, we learned that Caslon font is a good font for the reader’s eyes due to the medium sized x-height (although ITC Caslon has a bit larger x-height, it is highly readable).