Research - Magazine Research

The Z-Pattern is a pattern which is in the shape of a Z across the page of a website or a magazine. It is the way a person reads and scans the page when they first see it and are not being distracted with the adverts around it. The pattern is below, and as you can see, western civilization, read from left to right, so they go from top left, to top right scan across reading, or looking at images on the way to bottom left which then finishes bottom right. This is normally done very quickly in a matter of moments. This pattern is generally used by children to younger adults though, the rule used for adults and is just breaking through at the moment, is the "F"-Rule. A picture below shows this.

Z-Pattern.

F Pattern.

Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds is another guideline just like the "F" and "Z" pattern techniques, which enables the picture to look more flush and not so 'out of place'. The technique is when you have a canvas or image chopped up into 9 quadrants. These are done by 4 lines, two horizontal lines and 2 vertical lines, they are equal distance apart from each other on the same gradient, and the edges. The technique states that a focus should be at the intersection of lines or on lines to make the image more flush and not so out of place. An example is below in the form of a picture.

As you can see here in this wildlife close up image of a bee, its head is on the intersection of two lines, putting a focus here, and drawing viewers to this point of the image. The flowers themselves are also on the horizontal lines which keeps the picture in touch with the focus.

After looking into this technique, i will definetly incorporate my magazine with this rule to some extent, as my project is based on a magazine and not entirely on a photo or an image. I think this will help to make my image on my front cover stand out.