Feedback from the crit and my talk with Joe Gilmore

Ok, so here's the notes from my crit, I also presented some work for Daisy's logo and stationary. The feedback from the cults brief was that the fold was clever but I need to work on a layout that means the folds don't interfere with the content, which meant looking more carefully at the way I gridded things. They also suggested that I carry that fold and it's themes through to the rest of the work so they all work as a series. Initially I resisted this idea but then I thought perhaps I could do some really interesting things with that fold, having phrases that seemed fairly reasonable or perhaps non-sensical with the words in the middle revealing the real meaning of the phrase in an almost comical way.


I really liked the Baskerville header from the scientology booklet and tried applying more of the stylistic choices from that to the peoples temple stuff I worked on. It seemed much more sophisticated and the Bebas stuff started looking a bit cheap to me.

Whilst doing this, I had a chat with Joe Gilmore who saw what I was doing and saisd that whilst the layouts were adequate, they were pretty simple, like a standard magazine layout and that I should be striving for a little more, he said he liked the way the fact sheet ran horizontally down the side too, creating something a little more sophisticated. I realised he was right and began playing around with what I could do, quite quickly I came across the idea of having more copy running horizontally down the middle of the page in the same colour/finish I was using on the rest of the document, whilst playing with a second pull quote. I realised that it would be ideal to have a personal account running down the side because the main article is very objective and it would be a nice contrast. I played with it's position on the page because I was worried the pull quote was too far away from the main quote. I decided it was best where I started with it aeshtetically, and because it runs the same way as the main article, as a pose to the rest you look at it first over the article running the wrong way next to it. I also changed from helvetica neue regular to light because then it's less likely to interfere with the standard hierarchy of the page.

Open publication - Free publishing

To get the layout not to interfere with the fold or visa versa I divided the page into 3 gutter-less columns and then divided the middle one into half. I then added further columns till they aligned with these and had enough robustness to get enough words per line in the body copy (which turned out to be the ridiculously high 34 across an A3 page. I also divided the page into 4 rows to accomodate the facts running down the side. This came in handy when arranging the further body copy that runs horizontally down the page.

Open publication - Free publishing

I then applied this layout as a standard template because I thought it really worked, this allowed me to look at using the poster format across the entire range of cults. If I use a standard format, I can also do more than 4 cults and try out a realy diverse range of print processes. Here's what I did with scientology, I still used the picture of Tom Cruise, but half toned it under Joe Gilmore's recommendation that it look a bit edgy like that to suit the subject matter. I then experimented with the pull quote covering his mouth to symbolise the rstrictive nature of scientology that the quote talks about. I now realise that Katie Holmes, Cruise's wife, would be a better choice, because it's a commonly held belief in the media that she is being supressed by her mental scientologist husband. So I'll make that change.

Open publication - Free publishing

I applied the format to the Manson stuff I was doing, including an interview with biographer Vincent Beugleosi in the weird format. I tried a few things in terms of the overlay for the pull quote. At first I tried a blood splatter using a splatter brush, but it looked really tacky and cheesy compared to the sophistication of the rest of the article, so i tried the geometric tear drop shape I'd been using earlier and I think I'm likely to go with a variation on this, but I'm going to need to ask peoples opinions about it first.

Open publication - Free publishing

Here is the poster layouts I started developing in response to this. I really like the kool aid one, and the Manson one doesn't feel fully resolved yet, but it's heading in the right direction. I'm going to do the Raelian church tomorrow and see where I go with that before reviewing them all.

I also need to print out some of these pages just to doube check the readability and the hierarchy. If it's too distracting then I can maybe whack the tint of the writing down a bit to make it sink into the background more, so theres always solutins if it isn't quite working how I want it to.