Pangolin Magazine Spread
The Total Design of a Visual Layout

Graphic Design – 2019

This project was completed as the final assignment for a graphic design course. The aim for the project was to explore the compatibility of Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign through the development of a magazine spread to present information on an endangered animal.

An open magazine partially suspended in the air, the pages are mid-turn but the title “The World’s Most Trafficked Animal” is legible above the vector image of a small scaled animal hunched forward on its hindlegs with its forelegs tucked up towards its chest and its paws, with long gray nails held in a claw-like manner. The paragraph to the right of the image is mostly illegible, but the first word is in a bolded orange font and reads: “Pangolins.”

{1}

Logo Design Process

The first challenge of this project was the collection and creation of visual assets. The two dominant visuals had to be vector images: one to be the main “splash image” for the final spread, and the other to be the logo for a fictional conservation group. After selecting my source images, I identified the major shapes and created my base vector image to later bring to life with color. Due to the nature of vector-based works in illustrator I was able to pursue a fairly extensive iterative process when determining my final color palette, and I had fun playing with some themed versions of the logo which a theoretical organization could use for holidays and special events.

{2} CURLED PANGOLIN REFERENCE

{3} STANDING PANGOLIN REFERENCE

Final Assets and Formatting

My final magazine spread included the two vector images along with some photographs that were edited using clipping masks so that the body-text could wrap itself along the complex borders of the images. While the option to use Lorem Ipsum was available to me, I felt that it would be a better challenge to format actual content related to the subject at hand so that I could have some experience determining when I should edit the layout versus the text. The full-scale spread is available online through this link if you would like to explore the text I gathered from savepangolins.org [1-4] and other sources [5].

An open magazine with the standing pangolin vector illustration spanning both pages along with the title “The World’s Most Trafficked Animal.” The right page (containing a block of text that starts with the bolded orange word “pangolins”) is slightly turned and a portion of an image and some text is visible on the next page.
An open magazine with three columns of text on each of the two pages, shown to be bound using two staples. The columns of text are broken up using orange title text throughout the spread. The image that could be partially seen from the previous magazine image, on the right page, is a mother pangolin eating some food with her baby on her back. On the left page, the two leftmost columns are broken up by a pull quote: “Their scales are made from keratin – the same protein that forms human hair and fingernails.” The center column on the left page ends with a global map colored to show the population distribution of pangolins, and the rightmost column is broken up in the center with a line of termites.
An open magazine with three columns of text on each page–again broken up by orange title text throughout the spread. The left page is split in two (top and bottom), the three columns of text at the top of the page form to the outline of a female lion with a curled-up pangolin in her mouth. This lion is above a block of text on a gray backer that tells the story of the image and is titled “Long Live the Pangolin.” The right page is predominantly columns of text, with the two leftmost columns ending above the “Pangolin Rescue Fund” logo that features the curled pangolin vector illustration. The bottom of the page has another block of text with a gray backer that is a call to action to report wildlife trafficking and provides resources to act.

{4-9} IN-SPREAD IMAGE ASSETS

Information Citations

[1] “What is a Pangolin?” savepangolins.org
[2] “Threats to Pangolins” savepangolins.org
[3] “Pangolin Conservation” savepangolins.org
[4] “You Can Make a Difference” savepangolins.org
[5] “Lion Pride Try to Eat a Pangolin” by Sonya Joy for blog.londolozi.com

Image Citations

{1} “Maquette de magazine” Photoshop Template, by Graphic Burger
{2} “Ground pangolin foraging for termites” by Jen Guyton
{3} “Pangy, a threatened black-bellied pangolin” by Alexis Kriel
{4} “Opened magazine mockup” Photoshop Template, by graphiccrew
{5} “Magazine mockup” Photoshop Template, by user17882893, edited
{6} “Similar world map blank” by ad_stock, edited
{7} “Fire ant 01” by Stephen Ausmus, edited
{8} “Nothing beat a rest on mommy’s tail” oldest result from TinEye, edited
{9} Lion with Pangolin, by Sonya Joy, edited