Below is a production log where I will explain my thought process behind every key decision made when designing my print layout in Adobe InDesign.
My 1,500 word article will be displayed on a three-page spread designed to appear in the Daily Mail. During this process, I will closely analyse the Daily Mail's Thursday 24 November 2020 edition and provide photographical evidence of where I am drawing my ideas from.
I will also post screenshots of my InDesign document as evidence of my project's progression.
Entry 6: 7/01/21 - Completion update
Due to late unexpected circumstances, I was forced to change the main image of my article. I chose to go with Matchroom's official fight picture of Billam-Smith as I felt the emotive tone of the piece was still captured in this image. The dark background and the look on the boxer's face made this the perfect alternative main image. The photographer also sent me the original version, which means this is a very high-quality picture.
I also replaced the image on the third page. This was because I felt I could replicate the Mail's house-style like I have done in the double-page by cutting out an image on Adobe Photoshop and wrapping the text around it.
Entry 5: 3/01/21 - Completion!
After creating the template of my layout, I was able to replace the placeholder text with my main feature article. This filled up the majority of the double-page spread, meaning there was not a lot of space left for images and the infographic. Because of this, my first draft included smaller versions of the images seen below, and was rather text-heavy. The feedback I received was to add a third page to the layout and increase the size of my images. This would help to make my article look more visually appealing to the reader.
By increasing the size of my main image, I was able to replicate one of the Mail's key layout blueprints by putting my title over the image. I also used Adobe Photoshop to cut out the image of Billam-Smith holding his Commonwealth title and have the text wrapped around this image. This style is also common for the Mail's sports section.
The infographic seen on this third page illustrates Billam-Smith's injury timeline. I made the decision to show these key dates in a circular formation in order to portray the complete cycle of the boxer's return from injury.
Entry 4: 3/12/20 - Proportional changes to the header
The above image shows some of the changes I have made to the header. This was just a quick job to tidy it up, but after adding the date of the paper it soon became necessary. I noticed that the text was overlapping with my 'mental health in sport' banner, and in the Mail, these are separate.
To solve this issue, I changed the text size of the 'mental health in sport' title to 18, it was originally size 25. This alteration means that the text is no longer overlapping at the top of the page. I then shortened the height of the green banner to make it less intrusive, as I noticed the Mail's banner isn't too thick at all (see below).
Entry 3: 2/12/20 - Author attribution and header text
After working on the font for my title, I decided to choose how I want to attribute my name in the article. This is an exclusive original story, and the Mail use the word 'exclusive' in bold red lettering to show this. There is also a head shot of the writer, followed by their name in capital letters. This is in the same text as I used for the banner and page numbers.
I had a go at putting this together myself, and this is what I came up with. I also noticed the Mail align the text with the far side of the column, so I used the 'column guide' tool on InDesign to help me with this. Hyphens are also used underneath the attribution to separate it from the article, and I added the identical design to my file.
A minor, yet very important detail on the page, is the date of the newspaper. This appears as 'Daily Mail, day, month date, year'. The above image was taken from the actual newspaper, and the below image shows how I was able to replicate this in InDesign. The key thing to notice here is the date I have chosen for this story to be published. November 21 would have been Chris Billam-Smith's fight with Dion Jumah, therefore by publishing on this date, the story will be timely.
Here's an overall view of my progression. After adding more to the header I have noticed it isn't entirely proportional to the physical print copy due to the text overlapping at the top of the page. I will set out to tidy this up in my next post.
Entry 2: 1/12/20 - Title font analysis
It was time to decide on how I want my main title to look. Although I'm not set on what the title of the print article will actually be, I started by looking at the fonts used in the Daily Mail. Different title fonts are clearly used for different effects, for example, this large font (pictured on left) is very eye-catching due to its size on the page.
Smaller articles, such as the one pictured below, require a rounded font identical to the one I used for my name attribution and the banner text. This compliments the smaller pieces in the paper, but is not used for the double-page spreads.
With this in mind, I chose to base my title font on the first image. In order to find something close to identical, I typed in the first word of the original title from the picture, which was 'the'. This meant I could scroll through the available fonts and try to modify one that was similar to the one used in the newspaper.
The bottom image on the right shows the result of what I was able to create in InDesign. It was important to find a serif font, and as you can see, it is pretty accurate.
Entry 1: 26/11/20 - Page setup and banner
The first step before creating a file in Adobe InDesign was to buy a Daily Mail newspaper and analyse it. This is the copy from November 24, and I began by looking at a general double-page spread in order to identify key differences between the sports section and the rest of the paper. My eyes were immediately drawn to the differences in the headers, where the topic is identified.
The spread seen in the image above has the word 'life' written in a red font, signifying the piece belongs in the lifestyle section. For sport, which is at the back of the paper, the topic of discussion is written in the header on the left page. This appears in line with a banner, which is any colour apart from the Premier League stories, where the banner is grey (as seen on the right page).
The above image shows how my double-page looked in InDesign. I started by filling the page with placeholder text and separating it into columns of three. This is something that can be altered further down the line once I put in my written text.
I then started to apply the header banner house style, and drew a green box at the top of the page using the rectangle tool. I even applied the slanted detail to the banner which can be seen either side of the text.
I had to choose a short summary of the story to put in the header. I opted for 'mental health in sport' and used the 'Arial Black' font, which was identical to the font used here in the newspaper. This was the same font used for the page numbers, which are in the banner on the far left and right side. I chose pages 84 and 85, two pages that make up the Mail's sports section.
I then chose to lower the text on the left side of the page, leaving a gap in the top half. This will be the space for me to write a headline, insert a lead image and attribute my name alongside a picture of myself. This is common among Daily Mail articles, and is on my to-do list for the next entry!