The layout of magazine double page spreads varies depending on what the article is or what brand is being promoted and there has to be the right balance between text and images/ illustrations to create an appealing page spread.
For this task in the assignment, I chose to create four double page spreads in a magazine that promotes books along with manga and promote upcoming manga and has segments of certain publishers and what they sell. Since the manga is targeted towards 15-25 year olds I decided that it would be appropriate to advertise them in a magazine due to the appeal of reading a magazine could lead them to trying out manga as well.
When creating a layout for the page spreads I wanted the focus to be on the illustrations rather than on the text. Not that this makes the text any less important it’s just the illustrations can be the eye catching part about the page, so they needed to be big and take up the majority of the page. Less text can also be appealing to some audiences as they could find too much text over whelming and could lead to them ignoring the page. The only page that has a large amount of text is the introduction to SHARDNEX and this is used as an educational page to teach those with a lack of knowledge and understanding of manga what it’s all about.
Typically the introduction page might be skipped, but then the pages with the characters illustrations could catch the viewers eye and peak their interest.
On each double page spread I planned on making the right page being an image or some sort of illustration of the manga that is being promoted. This makes the page look more organised and feel less cluttered as a result. On the manga promotion pages I included a profile of the main character in each of my manga which has been showcased on the volume one cover. This creates a life like persona for each character making them feel more relatable and gives people an insight into the personality which peak viewers interest into buying the manga.
Finally, the text I included on the page representing a teaser about the story is there to evoke curiosity and give an insight into what the story of each manga is about. Using small amounts of text and leaving things unexplained can lead to the viewer purchasing the manga for themselves to find out what happens to these characters in their respective manga.