Deconstruction of Empire's Graphic Design

Moving on from looking at the typography of Empire, I decided to look at some examples of graphic design and the way pages are laid out.

I looked back over the Dark Knight feature, and studied the way that things were laid out by creating my own simplified version.

In this page layout (the first page of the article) the large photo on the left dominates most of the layout. The header also dominates the layout as it overlaps the large picture and 'cuts into' most of the other components. The small picture to the top right is almost overwhelmed by the text, but manages to stand out because it's dark, whereas the background it light. The content of the article itself is in a 'step like' formation, which helps lead the audience's eyes to the image at the top. Lastly, the small box out on the left of the large image helps to lead the audience from the first page into the second page, as it is the same font style/colour and background to the article itself. 

The graphical elements on the pages of Empire are usually very simple, and will be in block colours to match the theme colours of the page. In the Dark Knight interview, the graphical elements were strange triangular 'shards' that cut through the elements of the page (for example, quotes, photos, text, etc) This graphic design is meant to replicate the violence of the character Bane, as the graphical 'shards' seem to 'cut' and 'disturb' the elements of the page. This is a really powerful way of making pages stand out, and is very effective for setting the right tone for the interview. 

Some of the elements of the page (for example, in this image, a quote) seems to work with the graphics. The 'shard' shape here seems to 'underline' the quote, which gives it more emphasis. The 'shard' is a much darker colour than the quote, so really stands out against the pale background. 

Here, the graphical 'shard' works to frame the box out of the page. Again, this brings more emphasis to the text, and also is a small detail that improves the look of the page. Empire's graphics range from being very in-your-face to small and hardly noticeable, yet still important. All the graphical elements are carefully chosen to emphasis the text on the pages, and overall makes the pages exciting to look at, so therefore would engage the audience to read. If the pages contained no bold graphical statements, the audience would not pay as much attention. Before the audience even reads the text, they are first inspired by the visual graphics and photos. This is important for my own production piece, as I have to make sure that first my graphics and my photos are engaging and eye catching enough.