The Compass of Contents…IT’S ALIVE!!!

UPDATE ALERT! Last night, Willy Wonka took a break from working at his Chocolate Factory so I could work on coloring his outfit and, if I may say so myself, he is coming out pretty awesomely. 

Again, it may not look like much was done, but beauty takes time. Besides, while I was working on the purple collared shirt, I had been staring at it for so long that it just looked like splotches of different lights and shades of purple. I had not noticed how it was really looking until an hour after my art class when I was showing it to my parents and I had to do a double take. Art – it works in mysterious ways.

Anyways, last night, after my art class (and before I unexpectedly fell asleep), I was putting the Compass of Contents together on Adobe Illustrator. [Quick Digression] I have experience with Adobe Illustrator (as I have mentioned before) and actually have experience with Adobe InDesign as well. I am aware that Adobe InDesign is a better program for organizing my magazine layout since I can add text to my magazine, which is why I do plan on using it for that purpose, but I like Adobe Illustrator more, especially when it comes to designing and working with graphics, because I find it easier to work with in general. Thus, I am designing and organizing the layout of my graphics in Adobe Illustrator, and then transferring all of the graphics to Adobe InDesign to organize the layout of my text with my graphics [End of Digression]. This is what I created:

Left page of Compass of Contents

Right page of Compass of Contents

I placed a picture of the sketch for the Compass of Contents next to the page where I would be working on the graphics and basically just used it as a guide. Two changes were made through this process: the compass and the addition of advertisements. Yes, my logo underwent a slight alteration, can you spot the difference? I added a black outline to the blue dot in the center. It may not be anything major, but, before, the blue dot just kept looking out place to me, as though its inclusion was random, so I thought adding the black outline would help it tie it in better, and, now, the logo looks and feels more whole. Moreover, the black rectangles represent where I was thinking of putting some advertisements. As I was designing the Compass of Contents on Adobe Illustrator, I realized that I left out room for promotional pop-ups that somehow seem to be everywhere in magazines. I made some room for a couple, but I feel as though the placements seem to be a little awkward and weird. At the end of this layout process for my Compass of Contents, I am not truly loving it. I am thinking of going to Publix tomorrow and analyzing magazines that have a similar target audience and style I am striving to achieve. Embarking on this sort of adventure will hopefully inspire me on different type of layout for my Compass of Contents that I am sure to love!