Category: Reverse Engineer

Reverse Engineer of Shape Magazine

Reverse Engineer

About the magazine

The shape was a printed magazine founded by Christine MacIntyre and started by Weider Publications in 1981 with the idea of providing women with more attainable healthy information. In 2002 was purchased by American Media, and finally was acquired by Meredith Corp on January 28th, 2015. Since that date, the magazine is published weekly digitally on its web page https://shapehealthhalf.com/. combined with another magazine called fitness, when subscribing one gets both issues although you can read it as single.

Meredith Corporation Group

Meredith Corporation is a media and marketing services company that has been working on journalism-related platforms for 115 years. as part of this great company, there is a division in charge of advertising, this studio is named the “Foundry”, in their own words this is “ home to some of the world’s most innovative creative thinkers.”

shape

Category Identification 

This is a Reverse Engineer of a full page of the Shape Magazine, how the placement of the elements mainly Typography use and Photography are used effectively.

Typography

shapeTYPE

The main text in this composition is using an old-style serif typeface, the contrast, in this case, is due to the sizes especially comparing the character “i” to the text box. In addition, sub-headings are using a thick stroke of an old-style serif with a couple of points greater than the paragraphs.

One little text box stands as a caption of the picture in the right lower corner of the right page using a Sans serif light typography in contrast to the text on the left. this type of page construction resembles the tradition of the magazine, making it cohesive with past issues. it is located in such a way that allows the viewer to navigate through the page catching the most important parts of the interview with the model. Particularly choosing black as the text color helps the picture to stand out and remain part of the context.

Photography

shapephoto

This photography is a portrait, wich visual line is determined by the golden ratio. Her lips and eyes are focal points of the composition, in other words, the starting point from where we read the image, this line goes down in spiral and up again leading the vision back to the text. the shadow leans close to the text box suggesting to the viewer to meet the model through her interview.

The photo is a full-color triad picture where magenta, yellow and green where planned to stand out. The model’s sweater and lips magenta stress the first point of interest the line of her hand and the angle of her head guides the vision in direction to her eyes. Since the model’s face occupies two diagonal tension points of the rule of thirds,  and her hand is overlapping her face right on the right-lower points of the same rule, it creates a visual hierarchy. Finally, the contrast green color blurred in the background emphasizes the light just enough to make our sight go back to the big “i” character.

Alternate images for layout

Conclusion

To have a successful composition a designer needs to plan how every element will be related to each other. One can create dynamism by adding contrast using color, typography, photography. Overall the most important thing is the reading line we are creating and making it smooth. through our design, we can give a message within a message.

Cirque du Soleil, delightful from its ads.

Design, Reverse Engineer

by Daniela A. Guerrero

Cirque du Soleil is in constant creation of new plays; as a theatre, it requires promotional posters to show the peculiarity of each show, some of them having more than one way to promote. In 2013, there was a need to show the romantic and mysterious essence of the play “Amaluna”, the performance was to take place on Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.  The company Sid Lee was hired with Xavier Kuobi as the Art Director of the project.

 Sid Lee, it is a global advertising company that started in 1993, having some growth history from 2 people to over 600 professionals, it was a perfect match to a cirque that has captivated millions and has increased in every aspect of its business.

Design & Color Reverse Engineer

Throughout this content, the Amaluna 2013 poster displayed in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada will be analyzed on its composition using five design principles.

  • Proximity

To better understand the closeness of the elements the composition of this work has been separated into three sections or visual stops.

The first one is a medium shot of a woman’s bust silhouette placed horizontally centered and since there is light behind it filling the two lower centers of attention of the law of thirds highlights itself over the background. This big image also contains the circus on the bottom suggesting an island on the horizon, all of this, is a representation of Amaluna’s performance. The lights above the tent direct the eye to the play’s name and circus, working together as one whole image.

The second stop due to the font’s size and color will be on the lower right corner where the promotional information is located. Right next to it is the third section, the sponsor’s column placed inside of a gray shape containing their companies names or identifiers.

  • Contrast:

This composition has a color, font, and image weight as a contrast.  Due to the light behind the silhouette and its placement, there is a separation of the woman, dark sky, and water showing a clear contrast between light and shades. The bright colors of the crown, the white and green typography, the bright colors of the circus tent and the lights over it also contrast with the background.

There is a contrast of size between the compound image and the text below as well, and a typographic contrast of size, color, and fonts.

  • Color

Mainly there was used an analog tritone; shades of blue, tints and shades of yellow, tints and shades of green, but in the back creating a solar eclipse effect of light, it is lightly noticeable tints of red and violet.

The right usage of warm colors over the shadows helps to keep the dynamic of the composition, and the fact that the three main colors alternate between them creates a line to read the poster.

There are some suggestions that colors give to the mind due to its placement. first, the light, tints of red and violet suggest that the theme of the play is romantic, the green colors support the scenario of nature. the placement of light from the back to the head a suggest a deity who could be the main character and the story of Amaluna.

About the brand, the Cirque du Soleil logo it’s yellow or gold being placed on a blue, black or white background, same that is used on this image instead of the Logo.

  • Alignment

The compound image covers two of the third quadrants using the law of thirds. the horizon stands right above the lower horizontal line, the silhouette, cirque, island, name of the play and circus are perpendicularly centered to it.

AlingmentThe sponsors block it’s located before and next to the first vertical line of the rule of thirds, perpendicular and centered to it stands the promotional information block.

All the paragraphs are aligned to the center on the promotional block. looking from this perspective, the thought that the last block is unaligned, however [“if alignments are strong, then one can choose to break the alignment occasionally and won’t look like a mistake”]

  • Repetition

Repetition is used by placing the American Airlines logo within the ad multiple times (although the full logo is only in the top right corner). RepetitionThe name of the Cirque du Soleil it’s placed on top, center, and bottom of the image, reinforced by the tent itself. Colors are repeated also three times each alternating between them. Tones of yellow found on the crown, the tent and the sand, Tones of green on the feathers, the ornaments of the crown, the forest, and the description of the play. Blue which it’s visible on the silhouette, tent and the effect surrounding the image. the last elements repeating are the two lines containing the information of the ad.

Conclusion.

The campaign to promote Amaluna used many design principles on its creation, It is easy to read, it is dynamic due to color and contrast, the theme of the play was perfectly shown through one compound image. the visual reading line has a clear hierarchy due to alignment and proximity. Just by watching this advertisement one can know it is a story and where to find it, after analyzing this add it is clear that designing is creating a strategy where all the elements to be placed on a fisical or digital support must work with each other to communicate effectively.