Spread Mock-up and Choices

 In this post, the mockup for the two-page spread will be made. The mockup will be based on the third layout from the previous post. For this process, Canva will be used as the medium of choice.

For reference, an image of the original layout can be seen below:

Production -

Title -

The title of the article is labeled "Steps For Overclocking a PC", as it is short, allowing for space for the images and it still gets the point across to the reader. The font for this is a serif font, Bree Serif. The reason why a serif font was chosen for this title but not any other part of the magazine is because it helps break from the conventions of tech magazines, as serif fonts are typically know for inducing an "old" feeling. As for the color of the title, it was red. This is because red was used for every other title and the masthead of the magazine, so it is best to keep the color scheme consistent. The size was put to 38pt, as it is large enough to distinguish it as the title, but not too large at the same time. It was also positioned in the top left and made not very wide because there will be text to its direct right later on in the process.

Here is how the spread looks so far with the addition of the title.

Background -

The background color is simply going to be white. Although light blue was chosen as the background for the cover and TOC, having too much blue throughout the entire magazine will not be appealing as since it is such a light color, it will exhaust the reader after having to look at it for a long period of time, whereas white is a simple color that will not be exhausting.

Written Content - 

Now it is time to put the written content into the spread. The article has already been written prior to making the mockup, so all that needs to be done is to format it. For all of the body text, it has been determined that they will be in black and be 8pt size. The reason for this is because if the background is white, the best choice for text color will be black for the best readability, and 8pt was chosen for the size because anything larger will appear very unprofessional. The font itself will be Roboto Condensed, as this is what was used in the TOC for the article descriptors

The first introductory paragraph was placed directly underneath the title, matching its width. One issue that happened with this paragraph is that it was too large to be in the same position as it was on the sketch, so instead the paragraph is now taking up an entire column of the left page instead of only taking half.

So far, this is what the progress looks like, but now it is time to add the paragraphs for the five steps.

For each step, there is a number for which one it is in 21pt Droid Serif font on the top left of each paragraph. Then, there is the description of the step and the body text in 8pt Roboto Condesned, except the body text is in black and the step description is in red. With this paragraph done, here is what it looks like:

After all of the articles have been put it with the same formatting, here is the result:

There is a lot of open space which needs to be filled. While there will be some images, it will not fill all of the space, so there needs to be another solution. One thing that may work is increasing the font size of all of the text in the paragraphs by 2pts.

After increasing the size of the letters and reformatting it so that nothing is going off the page, here is the result: 

All that had to be done for reformatting the layout is to move some of the introduction paragraphs to the right of the title from its previous position.

Images - 

Now, it is time to put images into the spread. The first image that will be added is an image of what the 3DMark software looks like underneath the part describing the benchmark tool, and an image of what the MSI Afterburner interface looks like underneath the part that says that the reader should get familiar with the interface. This will be added because it will allow for readers to have an idea on what things should look like for them. By adding this picture, step 1 and 2 will have to be moved to the second page.

Here is what the spread looks like with this new addition:

Then, another image was added under step 1 that simply shows what the software is supposed to look like, again, to help the reader know if what they are doing is correct.

Now it is time to add an image for step 2. This image will just show what the software will look like with red boxes around what has changed from the previous steps. These boxes will be made by choosing a rectangle in the elements tab of Canva's photo editor, then adjusting its size to fit around the appropriate areas. 

Here is what it looks like now:

After that, it is now time to add an image for step 3. The same image of the software was added, but with the red box on what's new this time. After this image was added, there was a problem. The content in step 4 is already talked about in step 3, so step 4 was completely removed and step 5 was renamed to step 4. 

Here is what the spread looks like with these new changes:

Now it is time for the final addition, the image underneath the results. This image will be like the image in step 1, but it will show what the results of overclocking can look like. This will be done by simply running the process on my own computer, then screenshotting the results.

This is the final result of the spread:

Conclusion -

In the transition from the sketch to the mockup, many things were changed in the layout. This is primarily because the sketch did not account for the size of the paragraphs and images. Moving forward, many small changes such as the consistency of image sizes and the amount of space between paragraphs and edges of the pages must be perfected for the final design.