Illustrator Experiments

In my personal investigation exploring surf and skate culture I decide to create a magazine to display and layout my images. During this I found I wanted to incinerate graphic design to make the magazine more interesting however I found it tricky to transfer drawings through scanning as the outcome wasn't as effective. I have decided to use creative pen tablet to draw straight onto layout. This will mean I can create my own fonts and illustrations. I started by searching into some of my favourite magazines for inspiration and found these two articles which explore similar techniques. 

'Who is Michel Surman?' article and '7 guys 1 winnebago' article, Foam Symmetry magazine

This article is about talented board shaper Michel Surman. It tells his story of how he got into board shaping and his surf travels finding talented surfers with great style. They incorporate hand written parts into the magazine which adds a personal touch and looked really effective. I feel most inspired by the layout of this article, I like the overlapping of photographs and the use of fonts for parts of writing. They creatively use hand written looking font for sections of the writing which is very unique. The layout and placement of the photos really brings everything together in this article. For the '7 guys 1 winnebago' article they write in a humours layed back tone and the images show that through jokey photos and little drawings on some of the pages. The photographs illustrate the text really well, they describe their surf trip and then follow it along with beautifully compositions photos of powerful waves and the brave guys riding them.  The Layout is really effective and creative- they use different sections of photos cropped into long shapes and all images different sizes and cleverly layered over. The photos portray the guys travelling really well as it captures the humorous fun atmosphere of 7 guys travelling in one van. Little doodles have been added which illustrates their trip really well and brings the whole story together. The colour scheme used is really effective, the photos include complementary colours (mostly orange and blue tones which contrast nicely together) which runs throughout the article. 

Initial experiments-

First I started using the pen on Adobe Layout and found it tricky as the outcome was very shaky however I tried on adobe illustrator and found it such more effective. I found it very effective to use and I am pleased with the outcome. I will use this technique as my magazine project develops further.