Principles of Magazine Design

JOUR 500 Contemporary Magazine

Rules of Magazine Design

Design for function, not for decorationGood design facilitates readingGood design draws the reader inGood design leads the readerGood design has multiple points of entry –

headlines, decks, photos or illustrations, cutlines, sidebars while being clean and simple

Department heading

Headline

Deck

Byline

Body copy

Pull quote or call out

Art

Folio

Two-page spread

Think of two facing pages as a single unit unless there’s a full-page ad

Two-page spread

Four Elements of a Page

Every magazine page is made up of four elements:

Art (graphics, photos, illustrations)TextHeadlines/titles and subheads/decksCaptions

Elements of a page

And don’t forget

white space

Art

Every page or two-page spread should have a dominant piece of art, a single focal point

Let photos tell the story

Let photos tell the story

Unity

Magazines should be consistent – style, typeface, color palette, use of white space

Consistent design helps give a magazine personality

Unity: Typography

Limit yourself to just a few fonts:One for body copyAnother for department titlesA third for photo cutlinesUse special fonts for display headlines

Typography

Find creative ways to use type in display headlines

Consistency

Consistency

Trend: Brief text, lots of images

Trend: Celebrity covers

Anatomy of a Magazine Cover

logo

image

Cover lines

White space

Issue dateprice

Anatomy of a Magazine Cover

logo

image

Cover lines

White space

Issue dateprice

Covers: Poster

Covers: One theme, one image

Covers: Multitheme, One-image

Covers: Multitheme, Multi-image

Covers: All Typographic