Tag: Graphic Design

Grids and Margins

page layout
Page layout created in Adobe InDesign

As I’ve mentioned, my approach to page design is normally to cram as much as I can on a double-page spread but after all the books on typography and graphic design that I’ve read recently and (see previous post) the cereal packets that I’ve studied, I’m trying for a calmer, clearer page layout for my Wakefield Women in History.

I’ve just started reading Helen Gordon’s Notes from Deep Time and the classic page layout struck me as being a pleasure to read, so I’ve been using my layout ruler to measure margins, indents and leading (the space between lines) in the handsome hardback, published by Profile Books.

Dolly Pro

Dolly Pro

I’d normally go for a familiar, tried-and-tested, roman typeface like Garamond or Baskerville but an article by typographer Dan Rhatigan on Adobe Creative Cloud persuaded me to try a new ‘warm, fairly classic’ alternative for a book typeface, Dolly Pro, designed by Underware. It looks good to me but the test will be when I print a page on paper.

Just Right

Just Right cereal boxes

I’ve been reading up on graphic design and typography recently, so I couldn’t help noticing that Kellogg’s recently revamped the carton of their Just Right breakfast cereal.

  • call-outs and badges have gone or have been toned down
  • the outline and drop shadow of the ‘Just Right’ logo have gone
  • the emerald green gradient in the background has been replaced with a solid background of leaf green
  • the product shot has gone from oblique to plan view
  • splash of milk omitted
  • the ‘Kellogg’s’ logo is less legible, as it’s red on the a similar tone of green, but it’s much larger, so much that it gets cropped off the front of the pack

I thought that the shape of the pack had changed too, because its got a calmer, less cluttered look, but it’s exactly the same size. There’s been a similar revamp of some of the other Kellogg’s cereals, so they make a distinctive group on the supermarket shelf. I think they’ve pitched it ‘Just Right’ . . . in the Goldilocks Zone. Although she preferred porridge.

‘Less is more’

Busy cover of one of my walks booklets.

In my book design, I like to pack my pages with illustrations, comic strips and maps but there’s a lot of truth in the phrase ‘sometimes less is more’. If I’m reading through a book, rather than dipping into it for reference, I appreciate calm, clear design.