Don't Go Into The Water

The final outcome for the page layout project "Three things you should know about...".

I chose Selachophobia which is the phobia of sharks. To the 'untrained eye' (and I'm not trying to be patronising) this design may look very simple and easy to construct, however, it took 3 weeks and approximately 30 different possibilities to come to this conclusion.

We are taught not to be afraid of space, so I decided to be daring and leave half of the page blank. The activity in the bottom half of the page indicates the sea and a divide between above and below water, because obviously, that is where sharks reside.

I used the silhouette of the shark because the context of the piece is funny and lighthearted. The presence of a real image of a shark would have made the feel more serious like a national geographic magazine. Only half of the shark appears on the layout because this creates an illusion of mystery, and fear; I personally cannot even look at sharks so it made sense for me not to want to expose the shark's entirety. Also I positioned the shark like this because I wanted it to bleed off the page. This imbalance between the shark and the text emphasises the hold of fear it has over me!