Beginning Layout Sketches: New Museum

Within the past 2 days of class I began sketches for the layout for my 2-page spread for the fictional magazine Arkitekt.  For most of Monday I was pretty caught between the Knickerbocker Hotel in Times Square and the New Museum of Contemporary Art around Soho.

The New Museum of Contemporary Art, a modern work, certainly stands out amid the older buildings of Bowery.  What really impresses me about the architecture of the New Museum is that it really only is rectangular prisms stacked upon each other in an off-centered fashion.  It's that perplexing placement that creates a really interesting alignment I'd like to play with and off of in my layout designs.

In an early sketch I attempted to play with the off-kilter nature of the building, but mistakenly over-exaggerated a bit, leaving me to consider potentially saving the straight-on building shot for the cover and instead utilizing a close-up for the opening page of the spread.

This shot too would allow me to play with line movement but in a different dynamic.  It will be something I'll have to consider.

But back to sketching ideas, as the week comes to a close, I plan on developing my concepts to more concrete designs.  The first things I want to change with the actual article layout is allowing for more breathing space and integrating that off-kilter alignment concept.