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.”

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

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

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.