2 Page Spread Layouts

 Introduction. In the previous blog, I looked at how an article for a travel magazine is written. Using that research and information, I created original articles. In this blog, I am going to be creating 3 different 2 page spreads that follow conventions of my genre for some of my layouts. I followed conventions of my genre because my magazine will be most effective in persuading people to travel by following these conventions. However, I went against them in one because I thought it worked better with my specific layout with the way the †ext is formatted and the way my magazine is presented. I will also be explaining multiple elements that I purposely decided to use on each layout. I used Canva to make these layouts.

Layout 1.
Published Layout

There is no byline, there is a "How to go" section, the "Italy" is italicized, and the "Europe, We've Missed You!" is a combination of sans serif and serif. The introduction paragraph is in serif, and the rest is in sans serif. There are also three colors present (not including the picture).

Original Layout

This is my first layout. When creating the layout, I decided to format it in a way that the introduction paragraph is read first. I put it on the top left because in English, people read top to bottom, left to right. After the introduction paragraph, a picture is hows, This is because the introduction paragraph talks about ancient and abandoned sites, so I put that specific picture in. It shows the sightseeing possible in Turkey, and how fun it would be. I then put another image to show one of the key sightseeing locations in Turkey. This is to further emphasize the fun sightseeing in Turkey. I put another paragraph after that talks in depth about all the activities that you could do in Turkey. Lastly, I put a paragraph on how to travel to Turkey. I put this paragraph at the end because it is supposed to persuade the reader to travel. This is only effective if the how to travel section is after the reader gets excited reading things you could do in Turkey so that they are more inclined to consider traveling. I put the titles on top so that the reader can see what the paragraph is about first. This is so that they do not just jump into the article, but first know that it is about. The first heading "Activities in Turkey" is supposed to apply to the entire 2-page spread. This is because the entire spread is about traveling to Turkey. The first paragraph also does not really have a title because it is just an introduction paragraph.The second title reads "Activities in Turkey." This is because the paragraph is about things to do in Turkey. This title is italicized, and this is just a stylistic choice. I made the "How To Travel" in a different font and not italicized because although the paragraphs are supposed to be together as a pair, I still wanted them to be categorized differently, and this is shown by the fonts and italicization.The last title says "How To Travel" because the paragraph talks about how to get to Turkey. I followed a pretty simple and minimalistic color scheme. This is to not overwhelm the reader. I made the background white and the text black because it creates contrast and is easy to see. I made the "Activities in" a green-brownish color. This is because it is present in the picture, and connects the picture and the text together. I made it this specific color and not a different color from the picture because it easily stands out from the white and creates contrast with the black which looks good. I made the lines next to the "How To Travel" dark green because it pairs well with the black text. It also connects to the middle image with the dark green grass in the middle. This follows the conventions of travel magazines because I made the colors the same as the colors in the image of the travel location which creates a sense of completeness. There is no pull quote used in my spread. This is because the way my paragraphs are is that they talk about a lot of different activities to do, so a pull quote is not needed in this specific issue. Putting in a pull quote means I would need to put one in for every single type of activity (sky, water, land) and putting in multiple pull quotes is not aesthetically pleasing and eliminates the purpose of a pull quote. I did not put a drop cap in the spread.. A drop cap would overwhelm the reader, and take up too much space. It is also not needed in this issue because of the already stylish headings. I did not want the page numbers to be too noticeable, or too bland. I did not put a byline either. This is because when looking at other travel magazine articles, by lines are usually not there, and look more unprofessional. To keep an in-between I made the page number in a slightly stylish font to match the TOC and create a connection, and made it small to not attract too much attention. I followed conventions for all of my fonts in this layout because it gives off the perfect effect. For the fonts, I chose a serif font for the "Activities in" and a sans serif font for the "Turkey." This is because they pair well together, and make the spread look more interesting. It also makes the reader trust my spread more because of the effect that these fonts give off. I made the "Activities in" smaller than the "Turkey" because the entire spread is about traveling to Turkey. I made the text underneath in a slightly big font. This is so that it stands out from the other two paragraphs, and is clearly an introduction paragraph. i made it a serif font for the same reason, so it stands out from the other two paragraphs and is clearly an introduction. It is also a powerful and trustworthy font which emphasizes the idea that the reader should continue reading the magazine to see all the different activities. I made the other two paragraphs in sans-serif. This is because the two paragraphs are supposed to look like they belong together, and the font pairs well with the titles. It also makes the reader trust the article more and feel more invited, which gets them more excited and persuades them to travel. I made these paragraphs small because making them big looks unprofessional and looks like not much time was out in to the spread. For the white rectangles on the sides, I made the left rectangle bigger than the one on the right. This is because it has more text, and needs more space. It also aesthetically pleasing with the way the picture in the middle is presented. It is not a big size difference, but is more noticeable if there was a crease in the middle. The transparent rectangle in the middle is only there to help visualize where the crease would be.

Note: Although this spread emulates a published spread, I may not use it for the final product. This is because it looks a little bit crowded and packed. On top of this, because of the layout I could not use a hot air balloon for the middle image which is supposed to connect to the cover and the TOC, so I might not use it. 

Layout 2.
Published Layout.

Decorative title, drop caps, image placement, text placement.

Original Layout.

For this layout, I decided to put "Activities in Turkey" on top.  I did this because the way English books and magazines are read, it is read first. After that, there is an introduction paragraph. This paragraph will be read first, and introduce the reader. After that, the next paragraph will be read. This paragraph has most of the content, and is placed underneath next to the picture because the picture shows sightseeing, and it is talked about in both of the paragraphs.  The second paragraph will be read second is like this on purpose so that it is after the concept is introduced by the introduction paragraph. The picture on the side will be one of the first pictures seen, and this is on purpose because it makes the reader more excited and gives them a taste of Turkey. On thee right side, a picture of hot air balloons are shown first. This is on purpose so that the reader can see the hot air balloons which is talked about in the previous paragraph which helps them make connections and gives them more of a taste of Turkey. The last paragraph talks about how to travel to Turkey. I put this paragraph last because it tells the reader how to get to Turkey after all the activities are talked about. If I put it before, the reader would feel rushed and disinterested because they do not even know what's to offer in Turkey. For the images, I will include the sightseeing picture of the Aspendos theater. This is because sightseeing is talked about in the paragraphs, and is a landmark. Sightseeing is also very different from hot air ballooning, so including both pictures shows the readers that there is a lot of activities that you can do. I included hot air balloons because it is a fun activity that not many people had a chance to do, and matches the cover and the TOC. This creates a direct connection to the cover and the TOC and gives a sense of completeness. For the font for the "Activities in Turkey," I went against the conventions a little bit and chose a script font because luxury brands use it which makes my magazine look more high-end. It is not fully against the conventions as this style is sometimes used, but it is a little bit uncommon. It is also a little bit informal which gives my magazine a personal touch and connects with the reader better. The actual text is in a sans-serifs font because it is more friendly and modern. This means that my magazine looks more up-to-date and that it knows what it is talking about. This aligns with the conventions and is perfect for the effect that I want to give off. I did use drop caps in my text. This is because it looked plain without it, and putting it in makes my magazine look more elegant. This attracts the reader, and makes them wants to read it more. I made the drop cap in a script font to match the "Activities in Turkey." This helps create consistency throughout my magazine. This is a little bit uncommon in travel magazine, but is used sometimes. I did not put pull quotes in the magazine because I did not need one. This was more of a personal and stylistic choice, and I decided not to put one. I did put image descriptors in. This is because it tells the reader what they are looking at, and helps them understand the different things that they could do in Turkey. I put the descriptors under the image because it allows the reader to see the image first, then the descriptors. I chose this effect because they would get to see the actual location first, and then get to read what the actual activity is. This effect is more effective in persuading people to travel. I put it in a sans serif font because it is more up-to-date, and this makes it look like that the pictures are more recent, which makes my magazine look more recent as a whole. For the page numbers, I made it a script font. This is because it completes the magazine with the script "Activities in Turkey" at the beginning and the page numbers at the end. This helps to create consistency and makes my magazine seem more complete. I did not include a byline because following the conventions of travel magazines, they do not usually do it. I also did not include separate headings for the paragraphs. Sometimes there are headings, and sometimes there aren't. I decided not to put them because it does not follow the aesthetic of my spread, and my spread already flows without it. I followed a fairly simple color scheme. I used a dark gray color on the white so that the gray matches the images, but still looks dark enough to create enough contrast between the white background and the text. This helps to make my spread easier to read. I made the drop caps black. This is because it helps to pop against the text, and looks good. They gray rectangle in the middle is not there to follow the color scheme to give off a certain effect. It is just a guide to show where the article closes in the middle. I made the "Activities in" black so that it matches the color scheme. This is to not overwhelm the reader with too many colors since I already made the "Turkey" blue. I made the "Turkey" blue because it matches the picture on the right which connects the two pages. It also matches the TOC which creates consistency. This is a convention of travel magazines to connect the colors of the text to the images of the travel location because it looks more complete.

Note: I can no longer use the hot air balloons picture on the right side on the right side of the TOC as I cannot repeat a picture In the TOC, the picture with the text on the left is DIFFERENT from this picture.

Layout 3.

In this layout, I put the title "Activities in Turkey" on top. This is because it will be read first by the reader. This helps the reader know what to expect in the coming paragraphs. I then put a picture in of hot air balloons. This is because the readers will get to see the activity before reading about it. I then put the introduction paragraph so that the readers get introduced to the content inside the magazine. I then put another image in of sightseeing. This is because the reader will get to see the activity more before reading about it. After that, I put a paragraph on the activities in a more in-depth way. This helps the reader fully understand the experience. I then put a how to travel section. I put this section last because it tells the reader how to travel after they have read about the experience. This is so that the reader does not feel rushed and become disinterested. Taking all of this into account, the spread is read left to right and top to bottom. I tried to leave some space between the text and the edges because it looked too packed and scares off readers. did not include any pull quotes. This is because there is no space to include any pull quotes, and my spread does not need any. This is mostly a stylistic choice. I did not include drop caps either. This is because including a drop cap looked out of place and unnecessary. I did not include any headings for each individual paragraph because some of the articles did not have titles, and including them only on some looked incomplete on this specific layout. I will use these two images for the spread. This is because the picture of the mountains is a good image that shows sightseeing. The hot air balloons are a good image for air sports and connect to the cover and the TOC. For the fonts, I went with a sans serif font for the "Activities in" and a script font for the "Turkey." This is to emphasize the "Turkey" and make the reader trust my spread more with the sans serif font for the "Activities in." This goes against the conventions a little bit because it is supposed to be in a more serif font, but it is sometimes in script. For the actual text, I put a sans serif font. This is because it looks more modern and up-to-date which helps to make my reader trust it more since my magazine will look more recent. It also aligns with the conventions of travel magazines since it makes them trust the information more. For the page numbers, I used a decorative font. This is because it connects the entire magazine together with the script and sans serif title and the decorative page numbers. It also looks more elegant, which makes my magazine seem more high-value. There is no byline because it is uncommon in some travel magazines. For the color scheme, I went with a simple black and white. This does not overwhelm the reader, and is easy to read. I made the "Turkey" green so that it connects to the image which creates a sense of completeness. This is a convention of travel magazines because of these effects.

Conclusion. In this blog, I created 3 distinct travel magazine 2 page spread layouts. I mostly followed the conventions, but went against them a little bit in the last 2 with the script fonts. I am leaning more towards using the second one as it has open space, is visually pleasing, and connects to the cover and the TOC. I used original titles and articles along with original pictures for the layouts. I tried to make the layouts in a way to be the most persuasive as they can be.