EDITORIAL DESIGN FOR OPINION PIECES
There are some situations that I have very strong opinions on. One of them is the return of the Parthenon Marbles from the British Museum to Greece. The opinion piece by Leila Amineddoleh "The British Museum Should Return The Parthenon Marbles To Greece" was released in 2014 and expressed this sentiment. I created a two-page spread using selections of this article.
Examples of Scotch Text Condensed in Medium Italic and Roman.
ELEGANT TYPE FOR ELEGANT ANGER
The provenance of the Parthenon Marbles can be traced to 7th Earl of Elgin when he got permission to take portions of the Parthenon's frieze from the building on behalf of England, though there is no record of this being officially approved. During this process, the Parthenon was almost irreversibly damaged.
When creating a spread of pages for this piece, I chose to use an elegant serif typeface to reflect how beautiful these marble statues truly are. At the same time, I wanted to communicate my respect towards the Greeks and the seriousness of this situation and felt that a serif would portray this better than a san serif or other style of typeface.
The color palette used throughout the spread. From top to bottom: cyan, white, black, and red.
THE COLORS MEAN SOMETHING
When it came time to choosing a color palette, I knew that eye-catching colors with high contrast would be best suited for the piece. This is because I wanted to mimic highlighters in order to communicate how art provenance should be taught more in general education but also to emphasize its importance.
Furthermore, I wanted the colors to be representative of Greece and the British Museum. The cyan is a riff on the blue of the Greek flag while the red is a nod to the redcoats of the British army.
NOT A TIME FOR ILLUSTRATIONS
Sometimes illustrations don't always fit the mood of the piece you're creating. Because the Parthenon Marbles are so integral to the Greek culture and to the history of the world, I wanted to use actual photos of the Parthenon, the Marbles, and the 7th Earl of Elgin.
Photo rights aren't always easily attainable so I turned to Wikimedia Commons for these public domain photos of the subjects.
The first draft of the design of this piece. A dark blue translucently highlights the frieze of the Parthenon and blocks the 7th Earl of Elign's face
HIGHLIGHTS OR BLOCKING
During my first attempt at the design, I used a darker blue than the final color palette. Even so, I utilized a technique I would carry into the final outcome which was utilizing color blocking to emphasize or censor parts of the images.
A few edits were made to the article in order to fit it into the two-page requirement. The title had to be shortened and the original length did not fit on the pages, leading me to cut less important parts. For this first draft I utilized a four column grid.
Second pass at the spread. Red is introduced and a teal blue is used to block the 7th Earl of Elgin and highlight the Parthenon respectively.
ALMOST THERE
For the second pass at the spread, a five-column grid was employed to give more flexibility in. terms of organization. Instead of the darker blue, a teal was utilized in addition to a red. The blue is used to highlight the Parthenon and represent Greece while the red is used to block the Earl of Elgin and represent Britain.
In the header, translucent shapes are used to direct the reader through the title and also represent the return of the marbles from Britain to Greece. The background image of the current Parthenon Marbles being flipped upside is to communicate how wrong this situation is.
Overall, it was getting better from the first pass. Upon receiving feedback, it was clear that it needed a little more negative space, a less complicated header, and a footer with the magazine title, issue number, section name, and page numbers.
THE LAST TWEAKS
The final edits to the spread really rounded out the design; captions were added to describe the pictures used, a footer was added, and more padding was given to the text spaces so that reading would be easier. For the header, I took away the parallelograms and made the background boxes the colored shapes. This decluttered the header while still communicating the same message.
Overall, this piece was a great lesson in organization and learning when to adhere to a grid when to break it. It also taught a great deal about small choices providing an end atmosphere.