Meggi

Deadline #1 - Varsity Girls Volleyball
I like the story for this spread because it includes quotations from the coaches. Since it was my first spread I think it took some time to figure out a good layout and I think it still could have maybe been modified a little bit. I like the title because of the colors I chose. I like how the opacity increases as you read the title. I find that the picture in the bottom left hand corner is good, but it would have been better if you could see more of their faces. While doing this spread I learned that it is important to have your pictures before you design your spread because without the pictures you don't know how to set it up. Also, I learned how to select one part of the picture and make it either color or black and white. Some risks I took included not really having an eye line, but I think that the dominant photo united the spread because it crossed the gutter and was on both sides. Also, I chose to make the dominant photo and one of the sidebar photos bleed off the top of the page, which I like because it doesn’t restrict the spread to a perfect rectangle, but it allows for some freedom and uniqueness. To improve this spread I would have probably taken more pictures in order to have more of a variety to choose from. I would have paid more attention to the areas I chose to be in color in order to create some balance across the page. Finally, many of the pictures include the same people and so if I had a better variety of pictures I could have included more people in the spread.

Deadline #2 - Sophomore Mugs


One thing I like about this spread is the background that was chosen because it has an old paper look which links to newspaper things. I also like the layout of the second spread because it is simple. The layout above is also simple, but looking back on it I don’t really like the pictures at an angle. I tried to have a good balance between girls and boys on each spread and I think that is one good thing. I found that this spread was an easy spread to do, but similar to most of the spreads I have done I learned that the more pictures taken the better. On the spread above a few of the pictures bleed off into the edges of the page. A risk that I took with the page is that not all the photos are perfectly aligned, which makes the page look a bit sloppy. I would have maybe changed the size of some pictures in order for all the rows and columns to line up or played around with the layout design until pictures were all aligned.

Deadline #3 - Dividers
I like this spread because I think it’s creative. Nora came up with the basic design and I just changed some things depending on which section I was doing. I like the puzzle on the right side of the spread because people can actually do something while looking through the book. I also like how the spread looks like the front of a newspaper and it includes what’s inside that particular section on the left hand side. I learned that simple lines and rectangles can add a lot to a page and can be the basics to design. The black line at the top of the page is like an eye line. The dominant photo on this spread is a picture of a sign, which I think in this case, speaks more powerfully than a picture of someone. In this case the title is like a newspaper heading and that reflects the theme of the book. This spread was done after gaining a lot of experience and I think it turned out really well and I’m not sure what I would have changed anything on this spread.

Deadline #4 - Index and Varsity Boys Basketball


I like how this spread is simple and I like that the background is not just white. I think it’s nice to only have two pictures on the page because then there is not too much going on. The photos I chose were from WWW and the one above is more of a scenic picture and the one below is just funny. Doing this spread I learned that is it’s going to be simple it has to be good and I think that the pictures add a lot to the spread. Both the pictures bleed off to the edge of the page. To improve this page, I might have tried to figure out a better way to unite the two pages besides the grey background and the solid black lines.

I like the dominant photo and the photo on the right side at the very top because they are both good action shots. Instead of doing a story, I just asked the coach to write a little something and included that, which I think adds more meaning for the players. It’s supposed to be more of a photo story. Doing this spread made me realize that it is important to get information about the team and individual players in order to make captions interesting and informational. I also like the quote at the bottom of the spread with the picture of Ethan. I think the dominant photo could have been more towards the center of the page because it seems like it draws the viewer’s eyes off to the left side of the spread. The only thing that crosses the gutter is the solid black rectangle at the top of the page, which is what unites the two sides. I think the three pictures on the right side could have been a bit different and more interesting.