analysing page layout
and design
If you’re analysing
Watching an episode composition of the shot,
of Hollyoaks, I just saw and later the composition
print media
one character leave his of visual elements in
– magazines,
friend on a shoot telling a film or on a page, is
newspaper and
her, ‘You don’t need my all too often forgotten
help, you just point and under the pressure of the
particularly
shoot’, or something like shoot and studio. I don’t
advertising – you’ll
that. She stamped her watch Hollyoaks with
foot and looked suitably enough commitment to
need to be reading exasperated, giving him know whether this was
elements in relationship splattered mud all over our
to each other to create a clean kitchens and feeling
far more than just
a ‘you know nothing’ a student or professional
glare obviously enough shoot, but really the
dominant reading path a sense of relief that we
the words. Lucy for him to look ashamed.
principles should be the
around the page. put CleanyBright™ in our
Scott-Galloway
He scarpered and she same. Understanding
Much print advertising shopping trolleys this week.
went back to her terribly how meaning is made
strives to be aesthetically This is an important step in
analyses the
professional work of in visual language is
pleasing. The aim of the the process of advertising:
principles of design
shooting an interview with essential to producing
game is to represent feeling part of the world
no tripod. effective image-based
a desirable lifestyle being represented, and
and layout which
I smiled, thinking about work, and the combination
that welcomes the picturing whatever product
guide our reading
the hours of rushes and of, and relationship
consumer, inviting them it is being sold in our lives.
to become part of the
and create meaning.
reams of prints I’ve seen, between, elements of
and discarded, when design shouldn’t be
narrative world, invariably
Composition,
someone has just pointed- underestimated.
by buying the subject lighting, framing
and-shot. Quite aside
of the advertisement. But it is not any old
from rookie mistakes like
Visual literacy:
Conventions are sought picture of a car. It is not
potted plants coming out ‘reading’ design
that the consumer will any old picture of a woman
of subjects’ heads, light Discussing how images
recognise, the composition in a shower or kid in the
reflectors left in frame, make meaning means
will be designed to be kitchen. The photographer
or subjects positioned in stepping away from
familiar, pleasing and safe. didn’t just point-and-shoot.
front of bright sunlight, the our role as audience,
We don’t like to take risks Those images have been
and deconstructing the
with our money, and so thought about, sketched,
decisions that have been
adverts have to tell us discussed, changed,
made in constructing the
just what to expect. The sketched again. They have
work. To use an analogy,
car will be photographed been shot a hundred times
it’s a skill like being able to
speeding up into the then reviewed by many
taste a soup and recognise
winding mountainside people. The lighting levels
all of the ingredients that
road. The woman will be may have been changed or
have gone into it. This is
photographed looking imperfections touched up
something we generally
euphoric whilst washing in Photoshop. They almost
have to train ourselves to
her hair, the steam from invariably will have been
do, because we have spent
the shower strategically cropped. Because it is these
most of our lives tasting
placed to cover her elements – composition,
just the combination of
modesty (and pass the lighting, framing – that
flavours. This is our visual
standards of the ASA!). The make as much meaning for
literacy. We must begin to
happy but grubby child an audience as the subject
recognise distinct shapes,
will be photographed itself. And that is before the
whether they have a hard
in a clean middle-class image gets put together
edge or soft, ranges and
kitchen, mud splattered with copy, slogans, logos
tones of colour, whether
football in the foreground, and pack shots.
they are complementary
contented mother armed
or in conflict. We should
with washing powder
The rule of thirds
identify textures giving
looking lovingly at her
Proponents of the rule
the page an illusion of
son in the background.
of thirds think that the
tactility, and perspective,
We, as the audience for
most aesthetic visual
creating depth through an
these hypothetical ads, can
composition places the
impression of foreground
picture ourselves driving
main features of the image
and background. And
that car. We can picture
along one of four equally
when these elements are
ourselves washing our hair.
spaced intersecting lines,
recognised, we should
We can picture ourselves
two of which are horizontal,
consider the size and
looking at our cheeky
and two of which are
positioning of these visual
children when they have
vertical. Instead of placing
english and media centre | February 2008 | MediaMagazine 43
MM23S&
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