Columns Count: Relevant Magazine’s Unique Approach to Layout

While perusing the periodical shelves one day at our campus library, a magazine cover with my newly acquired music obsession thanks to my sister, the Civil Wars, called me to pick up a copy of Relevant.

As soon as I saw the tag line “God. Life. Progressive Culture.” and the recycled symbol next to the barcode, I began to investigate the trendy bi-monthly package a bit deeper.

Columns- not one size fits all.

The layout of this piece was definitely new. There seemed to be four different standard column widths, which makes for quite an unexpected grid. In an article on local and sustainable food, for instance,  the first column to the right was two and three quarter inches,  with a one and a half info box on Agrarianism books jutting down about three fourths of the page, followed by a two and a half column, and a one and three quarter margin, sweeping over to a four inch column  and a two and a quarter inch column on the facing page.

Boy, that was a mouth full! Just look below:

These different sized columns find their way in different combinations onto Q & A layouts, one page articles, and album reviews of “Active Child.” The way Relevant inserts pictures, info boxes, and IPhone bar codes seems unique as well, pushing a one inch column between two larger ones .

They keep continuity with their typefaces though, a lean all caps sans serif serving for most headings in different colors and font sizes, major headings for lead articles like “OK, GO,” or “Mute Math” featuring more creative and graphically in twined lettering.

Round the Pie in 6 Pages

Speaking of graphics, there’s one bit in particularly I like that serves the publication well: a red pie-slice-hexagon entitled “Slices.”

 The first one page “Look at Life, Faith, and Culture” opens with something different each time, from music industry’s “Cloud” to the “Burqa Ban” in France. The following pages use a similar layout grid and focus on Life, Culture, More Life, Tech, Culture again, and Faith, at least in the September/October edition. As you progress through the snippets of changing standards, a burgundy slice of the hexagon pie moves clock wise as the topic text stays in the same spot.

Disorienting or Re-orienting?

Sometimes the bold photos and loud graphics crowd things up a bit, making seas of text for large articles a relief for the eye that forgot what white space looks like, but is busy layout the preferred approach in a web based community where adds squeeze into any space possible on internet pages?

Maybe the creative layout of the Relevant Magazine is shouting a deeper message: do something different.

As Shane Hipps says in his book “Flickering Pixels,” the medium of the piece should reflect the message.  Relevant calls its readers to ask questions and seek to solve world problems through creative solutions, so why not solve layout decisions the same way?

Relevant fits all the “good design” qualifications: strong grid, common typefaces and themes and a hierarchy of elements.

But they do it in a way that engages and surprises the reader, allowing more freedom for graphs, pictures, and info boxes than standard equal sized or duo-sized columns of other popular magazines.

When things at first seem random, perhaps they are just creative.

Brain Breeze: makin' things easier

Large letters: father’s help, my hindrance. 

At home, my father has that annoying magnification setting on the computer which enlarges body text to a ridiculous size it should never be in unless on a screen fifteen feet away from your face. While this blatant misuse of text causes me to cringe through e-mails, Dad likes it because he can see the letters better. As a dyslexic, the better he can see the letters, the least likely he is to confuse them.

“A man walks into a qar” 

Dyslexics are labeled for “flipping letters around,” leading to the annoying “a guy walks into a bra” and “I’m les-dexic” jokes. While this does touch on one manner of “flipping letters,” what is actually meant is the flipping of individual letters.

http://www.studiostudio.nl/project-dyslexie/

 The Dyslexie  video on the site above does a great job explaining difficulties dyslexics have with type. The Dyslexie typeface claims to make reading easier for dyslexics, but many of these typeface modifications and suggestions seem to be just good tips for type and layout in general.

Break through or old news?

The thicker bases are perhaps the most subtle attribute of the new sans-serif, added to keep letters from “floating off of the page.” However, this “grounding” the creator stresses the need for is one reason why serif fonts are suggested for larger blocks of text: they lead the eye along.

I share his frustration when reading something in Calibri (the default typeface on Microsoft Word 2010) and Ariel, but do believe good letter bases are just good body text sense.

The author also spun wider centers for bowls and eyes* and more unique letter shapes as revolutionary. In contrast, this is exactly what the creators of Gill Sans and Clearview were working at, the first made for train time tables in 1927, the later a recent typeface made for highway signs.

These features allow us to recognize letters quicker and easier, which in all three cases, works great: Dyslexie, for people who have a harder time telling letters apart, Gill Sans, for hurried train passengers  and Clearview, for drives going about five miles above the speed limit about to miss their exit.

Ideal layout for dyslexics, same for websurfers? 

The creator of “Project Dyslexie” brings his audience to another page to talk about formatting, where tips discussed in my Media and Society class to keep online readers engaged are discussed. These include:

• Narrower columns/ Shorter sentences
• Short paragraphs
• Pictures to break up text

Not in my class though: left aligning text so people can find the next line easier.

E-world to open a new world

 With the font available to download onto any computer, and possibly tablets, the world of e-books and PDFs may have just opened up a whole new world for dyslexics.

My dad consumes TONS of online articles since installing internet at home, printing them off onto reams of paper.  With Dyslexie, he could copy and paste whole documents into a typeface better suited for him. E-book producers could even offer editions in Dyslexie, not having to gamble on who would want a print version.

 Though I am a lover of serendipitous book findings and paper turning, Dyslexie may just be one more advantage I reluctantly see in e-books.

So, is Dyslexie all it claims to be?

Or is it just another Font style in the evolution in type?

I am interested to hear if any have made use of this electronically already, or know details on the capability of e-readers and tablets:

Can Dyslexie replace Times New Roman on a personal device?

"A" is for Alliteration: an introduction

So, I really, really like typography.
I think the obsession started before my my father even brought home a "home work helper's" disc by Borderbud, which is kind of like Microsoft Publisher, and less like InDesign.

Microsoft Paint was my playground: I pursued through type names as an elven year old, creating backgrounds to fit words and vice-verse; looking back, I think that gave me a stronger sense of correlation of words and text form with intended feeling or austere.

Soon, I was calling out "New Berlin Sans! Really? for that!" and, "Why is Papyrus SO overused!" out the car window as we drove past a number billboards obviously made by some one in the office who didn't have enough things to do.

This love of type informs my current major: public relations.

I would fall more into the advertising category of PR than the business relations, though I anticipate having to develop that upper lip as well.

But Enough about me, more about Letter Forum.

I chose that title for a reason: I would LOVE for this place to be a spot where other type enthusiast express their own thoughts, findings and critiques on articles and images despite the fact that this blog was created mainly for a class, and I love play on words as much as I love alliteration.

So be prepared: if I can help it, from here on out ever post will start with an alliterated title from A to Z.

Post Ideas in the commentary below!