Essence: Structure, System, Form

10.27.20

To begin today’s class we viewed a video on empathy to stress the importance of perspective-taking and how we should avoid “silver lining” other people’s personal issues. Throughout all fields of Design, this is an important concept to understand and apply to your work, but in Communication Design specifically, this should be what drives the work you produce.

From here we shared examples of design that we found intriguing, for a variety of reasons. Some showed a book that owned while others shared posters or articles that utilized Communication Design in an effective way. The example that I brought was a Vox Media youtube video titled “Why so many suburbs look the same”. I particularly enjoy Vox’s work and how they use the format of a fully designed video along with added motion graphics to control the pace of what you are viewing. While all examples were significant and effective for their own reasons, the connection between all was the content and context of each piece.

Vox Video:

To close off class, we briefly discussed grid systems and how they are used to arrange content. From this discussion, our first project was introduced; in groups, we were to analyze both the print and web versions of a specific magazine, with an emphasis on the grid system being used, and the narrative throughout based on patterns in holding to or breaking the grid. My team was given Essence magazine.

Initial Findings:

To begin the process of creating our first iteration, my team did research on the background of the publication, and some breakdowns of spreads pulled from the Essence magazine issue we were given.

Background:

Essence is a monthly magazine black-owned publication that highlights African-American culture, fashion, and news. Their modern style and chic content reflect their audience of primarily upscale black women.

Both in print and online media that spans categories such as Celebrity, Lifestyle, and Love. Prominent black figures like Whitney Houston and Michelle Obama have been featured in the magazine.

Spread Breakdown:

10.29.20

Today we presented our findings and took time to further develop our presentations. Our presentation covered the background of Essence magazine and initial grid systems of a few spreads we scanned from the issue we received.

First Presentation:

We couldn't find any continuity throughout the spreads we pulled, but this may have been due to user error and warping from scanning. The grids we found were 5, 9, and 12 column grids, but none seemed to fit perfectly (or fit a number of elements) so we were fairly certain, that we just had some issues with the actual spreads we used. After having trouble with precise measurements within our scanned 2020 issue, we found a pdf of a 2019 issue of Essence to continue with.

After talking with Vicki, the feedback we received made sense for where we were in the process.

Presentation Feedback:

• Too much text
• Change black background to a dark gray
• Be sure to write a script and include a narrative throughout
• Add variations of magazine covers
• Include navigation in slides
• Show raw spread first and then the overlay of the grid structure
• Possibly contact Essence to ask about their design process

Reworking the Presentation:

Since our initial slide deck just laid the groundwork for our future presentation, we didn't have much to modify — most of our work was adding what he had not created yet. Due to this, we had some work to do, so we divided up work and analyzed our respective areas of the magazine/website. I was responsible for the macro view and analyzing various spreads.

Macro View:

I decided to start with the most zoomed out version of a macro map and boil it down to the most necessary information later. While I had expected to find many different categories I did not expect to be completely overwhelmed (however, this was my own doing as I chose to create gradients for the subsection of every category). As expected, this did not effectively communicate the importance of the full magazine breakdown and was simply an eyesore.

To condense information I combined sub-sections into their respective categories (Beauty, beauty — hair, beauty — glam gadgets, etc. all became one Beauty category).

Macro View Part 2:

From here my next step was to place the macro view on a dark background to simulate our presentation slides and rework colors to communicate effectively.

Macro View Part 3:

Second Presentation:

11.3.20

Following our first round of feedback, we did a dry run of our presentations to pinpoint any weak points in clarity, narrative, flow, pacing, and visual aesthetic.

Presentation Feedback:

Bon: When you were giving an example like talking about Michelle Obama being featured, I wish I could see that specific example on your slide. The hierarchy of the slides could be more consistent. My eyes were scrambling to find the entry spot on the typography page.

Hayoon: I really liked the overall presentation flow and the use of highlights. But sometimes, it was a little hard to follow when you guys talked about the website. I also think that it might’ve been helpful if you guys went over the thesis at the end so that it ties up everything together.

Alison: There was a lot of grid analysis in your presentation, but it might help to explain a bit of how these grids inform the brand or overarching context of the magazine. It was a bit difficult to connect the significance of the content to the form analysis.

Zimmy: You did a really nice job of helping the audience keep track of where you are in the presentation and using dynamic colors/visuals, one small thing I would note is that when showing the grid, some of the colors contrast in a way that is more distracting than helpful (ex. bright red on bright green). It would also be helpful to give more context about the type of content presented by the magazine and its audience.

Jasmin: I liked how specific you guys talked about the website analysis. I was also interesting to see how you guys touch on the digital(phone) version.

Grace: I liked your analysis and transitions for content, but there were some small things that I pointed out during class which could be adjusted. In terms of narrative, I wonder if you could further integrate the goals and story of Essence — at the end of the presentation it wasn’t super clear to me how the content analysis related to the audience/story

Chelsea: I wish there was a summary/takeaway at the end that ties back to your narrative. Other than that I found your presentation really engaging, and the pace was pretty good. For your content structure (ads versus different content), I really liked how you showed the bar graph. Have you considered grouping the content types together? When you split them up, right now it looks like the proportions of ads is a lot more than content.

Maggie: I loved the way you guys transitioned between each slide and closeup, however, I thought the multiple-color overlays (toward the end of the presentation) was a little busy and hard to see. The typeface slide is also a little busy and hard to see where we should look at first. I also didn’t quite get the overarching message/theme and how your adjectives apply to the design decisions of the magazine.

Max: The slide had a nice flow overall. The analysis using the grid system was helpful could be more researched in depth. Summarizing the whole presentation would be nice

Quentin: The slides were very clear. I like the darker background and the way each spread can be seen clearly. The slower step by step analysis of the first spread I think was helpful for the audience. I think the presentation could be stronger if you were able to reconnect with the goals and identity of the magazine at the end.

Jaclyn: I’m missing the thesis/overarching point. I think you mention it in the beginning, but I need some summary. Motion is effective. The website analysis is interesting, I kind of think you go too deep into the different past versions of the site, when there are little meaningful insights there.

Vicki: Your overall hypothesis and slide structure were clear and the sequence of slides seems appropriate. You have a good script and with a few rounds of rehearsal, it will flow well. In some areas I need more context — are we looking at print, web, or mobile? In addition, there are several points where you say “we can see”, but you don’t visually help us see what you are referring to. How can you use scale, color, or motion to help us focus on what you are talking about? Your macro view is a bit complicated and doesn’t quite tie in with the rest of the slide show/narrative. How can you simplify and connect that content with the other segments of the presentation? The historic, 4-up comparison of the web might be too much information. I felt myself wanting to see the “now”. Rather than showing me the alphabet in Playfair, show me the type in the context of the publication and maybe explain why a Didone face is used/appropriate to the Essence mission. remember to bring us back full circle at the end with a conclusion or a review of your overall hypothesis.

Key Takeaways:

• Need more context when showing breakdowns
• Need to guide the viewer to what we are discussing
• Simplify macro view — implement into the narrative
• There is no real underlying narrative in the presentation
• Historical view of the web is too much info
• Drive everything home at the end and review hypothesis/narrative

Creating the Final Presentation:

Most of what I had to do from this point on was refine the macro view and help create the narrative throughout our slide deck and script. My analysis of spreads was at a good place, I just had to rethink the colors of overlays and where they would fit in the presentation.

Since we didn't have much of a narrative at this point, this is where we put most of our energy. we decided to define Essence as Lively, Chic, and Confident, and explain how different variations of spreads communicated these adjectives. To effectively do this, we picked categories from the magazine and analyzed spreads based on their column structure.

Refining the macro view:

Since most feedback about the macro view was about how busy it was, I decided to boil the content down even further into only two large sections: Recurring Content, and Feature Content.

This breakdown did not effectively communicate the various categories, so I had to take one step back from here:

I then gray-ed out the separate categories for our transition slides highlight the respective category we would be talking about:

Final Presentation:

Reflection:

I think that a lot of what I learned from this project was unexpected. Not that I had expectations for what I would get out of it but there was a lot that I learned that was below the surface of grid systems. Along with the terminology that comes with a grid system, I was able to understand the reasoning behind certain decisions when it comes to sticking with or breaking the grid. By looking at Essence, an existing magazine, I saw how many decisions have to made to create a successful spread, and why these decisions were possibly made based on the publication’s mission. Now that I better understand why certain text or image placement is “successful”, I can communicate much more effectively in any composition that I create.