The brief states that we must include mockups of our Conspiracy Theory pages, because of this I managed to find a series of mockups made for a Square Magazine (trying to find a Square Coffee Book Table mockup was near to impossible). In addition to this, I wanted to find a mockup that was quite thin to ensure that the gutter wouldn’t effect the middle of my designs to strongly, this made a magazine a perfect fit! I have included both the link for my mockup base and my created mockups below:
Day: Dec 4, 2020
With all of my pages now completed for the Conspiracy Theory Section of the Options Project, I thought it would be beneficial to upload them all onto a single blog post, so they can easily seen! All 6 of my double page spreads can be seen below, and the next step is mockups:
With all of my infographic spreads completed, I wanted to move on to a question that was asked of me during the Interim Crit – how will I include the small write-up for my Conspiracy Theories? When I was designing the infographic spreads, I followed the aesthetic of a police investigation board, and forgot about the inclusion of a write-up for each conspiracy theory. But as soon as the Interim Crit was over, I started to think of a way around, that will leave my infographics untouched but include the paragraphs that are needed for the final piece. And I think I soon discovered a fix that will keep everyone happy and follow the rues of the brief:
I decided to create extra work for mysel, and create an additional 3 double page spreads that would hold the paragraph for each Conspiracy Theory. The I idea I had was very simple, the background for these pages would be the same papyrus effect seen in the infographics, but instead of illustrations, I will be including text. On the left hand side of the spread will sit a quote about the Conspiracy Theory (taken from the Critical Research blog posts) and on the right hand side of the spread, will sit the title of the Conspiracy Theory and the write-up for it. As mentioned above, the idea is very simple, and I wanted these pages to be simple because it would create a nice contrast with the busy infographics. I think if I attempted to create a busy information page, the audience would be too taken a-back and the business of the infographics would become cluttered because the information pages add to it. In this instance, I think simplicity is best! My information spreads can be seen below, along with the text that I have included on them:
The Hollow Earth
Quote:
“My conception of the Hollow Earth, based on my research is that the shell of the Earth is about 800 miles thick, from the outside to the inner surface. Suspended in the center of that hollow is an interior sun that is divided by day and night sides.
Rodney Cluff, author of World Top Secret: Our Earth IS Hollow
Paragraph:
There is a suggestion within society that we are not alone, but instead of looking up to space, we should instead look below into the centre of our Earth. It is theorised that our Earth is hollow, which opens up to the idea of a lost civilization within the Earth’s structure. Many explorers have tried to turn this theory into fact, and some have become close. Edmund Halley was the first to theorise this possible idea, John Cleves Symmes Jr is the most famous explorer to possibly find the Hollow Earth entrance and Admiral Richard E. Byrd is one of the first explorers to claim that he infact flew into and visited the city within the Hollow Earth.
The Large Hadron Collider
Quote:
“Is CERN the most dangerous thing in the cosmos that could lead to the ultimate destruction of the Earth and the entire universe?”
from an article reported by Rob Waugh
Paragraph:
The Large Hadron Collider is a pivotal piece of machinary within the science industry, it is powerful, strong and has the possible chance of summoning a God… This conspiracy theory follows the idea that the Large Hadron Collider is capable of bringing destruction to our Earth if an experiment is ever to go wrong. But what could it summon? There are 3 main beings that could be called upon; the ancient egyptian God, Osiris, God of the Underworld, the Hindu God, Shiva, God of Destruction. or finally, the Antichrist but which form the Antichrist could take is unknown, will it be Lucifer Morningstar or the Satanic depiction of the Antichrist as a beast.
The Mystery of Cleopatra
Quote:
“You cannot find anything in any ancient writing about where Cleopatra is buried. But I believe she prepared everything, from the way she lived to the way she died to the way she wanted to be found.”
Statment about Cleopatra’s Tomb spoken by Kathleen Martinez
Paragraph:
Cleopatra, the last Queen of Egypt and a woman of mystery. Many historians and archaeologists have tried to find any information about the last Pharoah of Egypt. But what we know, has still kept us in the dark. Cleopatra’s history is one full of interest and intrique, which surrounds her from the moment she is born to the moment she dies. What does Cleopatra look like? How did Cleopatra die? Was it poison or something else? Who did she love? Julius Caesar? Mark Anthony? Where is she buried? Where is the great Tomb of Cleopatra? These are just some of the questions we all have about the great Queen, but whether or not we discover answers is a mystery.
When creating these pages, I soon discovered that I needed something to act as an eye-catching element. I soon decided to take inspiration from my own blog theme. There is an option when writing a quote on the post to have it positioned as a ‘pull quote’:
Pull Quote Appearance
Pull Quote Apperance
As shown above, this style of pull quote, places a speech mark symbol above the quote to highlight what it is. I wanted to include this symbol within my own information spread. From here, this soon developed into also including lines to break up the quote from the reference, and the title from the paragraph. I think this little design element adds a sense of sophistication to the spread, and draws the audiences attention in because there is more than just pieces of text on a page.
In addition to this, my choice of font is still consistent with the overall style of handwritten notes. For the quotes, I have kept the font ‘Chantal Medium’ to keep it consistent with the font used in the infographics. For the title, I decided to use a font called ‘Particle’ because it offers a clear and understandable font that the audience can easily read, as well as also being a very simple and generic font style which allows it to fit in comfortably with the handwritten fonts. For the paragraph, I wanted a font that still conveyed handwriting but not as strong and powerful as the Chantal font, which is why I chose ‘Inkfree’ for the paragraph. This font is a very light and easy to read handwriting font, which connects effectively to both Chantal and Particle.
Overall, I think these information pages work really well, and effectively offer a explanation on what the audience will see when they turn the page to the infographic. Hopefully the write-up is clear and understandable, and is obscure enough to allow the audience to create their own opinion and interpretation on the Conspiracy Theory they are about to learn about!
HND2 Baxter's Designs 