FACTUAL PAGE LAYOUTTask 6

RUSH

When thinking about what words I could use within this task, I looked at the list of words we were given within the task and read through them all and picked out three that gave me a visual idea. When I saw the word ‘rush’ I immediately had the idea of making the word have the illusion of movement, as if it were rushing out of the frame. I think that I have achieved this very well and used a great technique to create this technique. First of all I chose a clear, simplistic font so that the word would be easily legible to the reader. I then italicised the whole word, I did this because when someone is running, for example, they tend to lean forward for momentum, therefore having the word leaning forward automatically makes it seem as though it is moving forward at speed. Next I duplicated the word multiple times and decreased each versions opacity by 20% steps and put them in descending order behind the original word making sure that they were all arranged behind one another and spaced evenly. This creates the illusion that the word is moving forward at great speed and therefore is illustrating the word using the word itself and nothing else.

REPRODUCE

The second word that I chose to use within this task was ‘reproduce’, I used this because I thought that it would be a very visual word. Within InDesign I simply used a text box with a simple, clear font and typed the word into the box then copied and pasted the text box multiple times without changing any aspect of it so that the word would have been identically reproduced within the document. I then placed each word in random different places and used the rotate tool to change the angle of some of the text boxes, I also made sure that the words overlapped, however not too much so that the word was still legible to the reader. I made one more copy of the word, increased the size and made the word bold, I placed this one word slightly to the left bottom corner of the cluster of words giving the illusion that the cluster was made from this one word, as if the cluster was reproduced by the word itself, essentially illustrating the word itself. I think that in comparison to my prior design, it is not as strong, however I have experimented with using the rotation tool to change the alignment of words within InDesign.

AMUSE

I went on to chose a different word which I thought that I could visually illustrate well and settled on the word ‘amuse’. I decided that I could find a font where the letter ‘u’ did not have a stem so that I could stretch that one letter within the word so that the letter would look like a smile, as the word ‘amuse’ has positive associations and a physical response to amusement is a smile. To create this effect I used a simple font for the whole word, then highlighted the letter ‘u’ and searched through all of the fonts available within InDesign until I found one suitable for the illusion I was wanting to create. I then decided to change the letter ‘u’ to the foreign letter ‘Ü’, I did this because the use of the dotted accent does in fact make the ‘u’ look like a smile as the accent creates an illusion of a face. Although the positioning of the word has not changed I think that the way in which I have though of a way to illustrate the word using the word itself is creative and works very well.

JUGGLE

Next I chose to try to illustrate the word ‘juggle’ within InDesign. I found this a difficult word to be creative with as the first thing that came into my mind was to simply position the letters of the word as if they were being juggled. I decided to create this idea and started by opening a new blank document within InDesign and typed out each letter of the word within their own content boxes so that I could individually alter the size and positioning of each letter. I then went on to position each letter in a where the word looked as if it was being juggled, once I had the positioning of the letters correct I then changed the angle of the letters, excluding the first and last letters, ensuring that the word would be legible to the reader. I kept the first and last letter level and in line with each other to give the illusion that they are juggling the other letters between themselves. I think that this very simply illustrates the word, however I have experimented with how changing the angles of single letters within a word can impact the audience.

Finally I decided to use the word ‘bang’ for the last creation for this task. I chose this word because it is also an onomatopoeia, a word describing a sound, and I thought it would be interesting to also create an image for that word using the word itself. I thought that it would be possible for me to portray an explosion of some sort by using the word repeatedly using different sizes and positions. I started by opening a blank document in InDesign and typing out the word in a clear font in order for the words to be easily read by the audience, I made the word very small and placed it in the very middle of the page, I then started to use this word as my starting pointing, creating the word over and over again but making it bigger each time and using the first word as the center, positioned the other words around it so it seemed as though it was expanding and growing, just as an explosion would do. I think that the final outcome of this image depicts the word well. This task has helped to improve my creativity in InDesign and helped me realize how typography can have an impact on an audience.

BANG