Things i should take into consideration when making my magazine
2
http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/great-magazine-cover-design-tips/ 1. Guides and Templates It is important for a magazine to be consistent in design, not only from one page to another, but also from one edition to the next one. All the big brands such as Sports Illustrated, FHM (example below), Cosmopolitan, Reader’s Digest or Men’s Health have a style that they keep for a long time before deciding to totally revamp it. It’s like web design, changing your page’s design too often will not help you build a strong visual identity. The basic idea is that you have to keep the same layout and styles throughout and this will make the readers come back for more. Do not consider all these guides, templates or sheets as rules, but as frameworks you have to build on when you design a magazine cover. Now I’m not saying everything has to look exactly the same, but I would set up my positioning, grids and guides and use them for every cover that I designed for a specific magazine. 2. Planning in advance The cover can be the element of a magazine that takes the most time to design, because it is also the most important one. If the readers don’t like it, they are less likely to buy the edition. Therefore you have to put a lot of effort and thought into it before actually starting to design. Ask yourself what you want to achieve with the cover and why. Which colours or set of colours should you use and the impact they have on the readers’ mind. It can be intriguing, fascinating or stand out; either way, you need a lot of time to think about it. Unfortunately this doesn’t always work, because we all know that working on paper is not the same as actually designing. The colors might not be good, the contrast might be too low or high, titles might not fit in well because of the amount of letters, images may have issues and so on. We all experience this once in a while. It is always a good idea to have a back-up plan which will spare you some time if the first ideas can’t be achieved. 3. Inspiration If you are not inspired, then get inspired. If you always work within the same style at some point in time your creativity might get limited, but fortunately there are ways to avoid this. Don’t be
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Transcript of Things i should take into consideration when making my magazine
http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/great-magazine-cover-design-tips/
1. Guides and Templates
It is important for a magazine to be consistent in design, not only from one page to another, but also from one edition to the next one. All the big brands such as Sports Illustrated, FHM (example below), Cosmopolitan, Reader’s Digest or Men’s Health have a style that they keep for a long time before deciding to totally revamp it. It’s like web design, changing your page’s design too often will not help you build a strong visual identity.
The basic idea is that you have to keep the same layout and styles throughout and this will make the readers come back for more. Do not consider all these guides, templates or sheets as rules, but as frameworks you have to build on when you design a magazine cover. Now I’m not saying everything has to look exactly the same, but I would set up my positioning, grids and guides and use them for every cover that I designed for a specific magazine.
2. Planning in advance
The cover can be the element of a magazine that takes the most time to design, because it is also the most important one. If the readers don’t like it, they are less likely to buy the edition. Therefore you have to put a lot of effort and thought into it before actually starting to design. Ask yourself what you want to achieve with the cover and why. Which colours or set of colours should you use and the impact they have on the readers’ mind. It can be intriguing, fascinating or stand out; either way, you need a lot of time to think about it.
Unfortunately this doesn’t always work, because we all know that working on paper is not the same as actually designing. The colors might not be good, the contrast might be too low or high, titles might not fit in well because of the amount of letters, images may have issues and so on. We all experience this once in a while. It is always a good idea to have a back-up plan which will spare you some time if the first ideas can’t be achieved.
3. Inspiration
If you are not inspired, then get inspired. If you always work within the same style at some point in time your creativity might get limited, but fortunately there are ways to avoid this. Don’t be boring and remember that you need to stir up some emotions in the reader when he turns the page. If you feel uninspired, take a brief look at other publications, see how they’re doing or, the most popular method, go and take a walk. Relaxing is good for your mind and you will come back home or to the office with fresh ideas.
.4. Typography
As a designer, you decide how the information is provided to the reader. If you do it properly, then the titles will always stand out and the most important information will be easy to find. You can see in the image below that even if there are few colours and no images on the page, the designer managed to make you want to read the content on the left page. He did it through typography, headlines, pull quotes, font colours and hierarchy.
