Often designers will follow a grid that they have designed themselves for a publication. This can often be the difference between a publication with an identity or an unsuccessful publication. Using a grid layout that has been specifically designed allows you to lay out information in a manner that is communicated well.
It is also important to think about legibility and readability. Legibility is about the quality of the text being clear enough to read. This can be done by the choice of type face and the x height. Readability is about the ease of which a block of text can be written, the layout as well as the use of kerning and tracking.
Type size and alignment is key when thinking about layout. If type is too small it is unreadable. Often in editing software you can organise the layout of a paragraph; flush left, centred, flush right or justified. However the issue with justifying paragraph is the spaces between words are uneven and can cause channels of white called 'rivers'.
There is also the issue of widows and orphans. Widows are short lines at the end of the paragraph that sometimes continue onto the next page. Orphans are similar and are single words on the last line. These issues disrupt the readers eye and causes the text to be less readable.
In this task I analysed takeaway menus. Takeaway menus are often poorly designed and are good examples of layout that hasn't been thought of. This is the example of a Chinese takeaway that I analysed. It uses more than 3 types of typography: normal, light condensed and different colours as well as bold. This stops it from flowing and has difficult readability. It's background is also chaotic and the mixture of colour is difficult to focus on.
In this task I had to redesign a section of the menu. I made sure that the text was positioned in a more flowing, easy to read format instead of looking squashed. I kept the scales similar so there is now a house style which makes it more readable.
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