Principles of Magazine Design JOUR 500 Contemporary Magazine

Principles of Magazine Design JOUR 500 Contemporary Magazine

Rules of Magazine Design for function, not for decoration l Good design facilitates reading l Good design draws the reader in l Good design leads the reader l Good design has multiple points of entry – headlines, decks, photos or illustrations, cutlines, sidebars while being clean and simple

Department heading Headline Art Deck Byline Body copy Pull quote or call out Folio

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

Two-page spread

Four Elements of a Page Every magazine page is made up of four elements: l Art (graphics, photos, illustrations) l Text l Headlines/titles and subheads/decks l Captions

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 l Magazines should be consistent – style, typeface, color palette, use of white space l Consistent design helps give a magazine personality

Unity: Typography Limit yourself to just a few fonts: l One for body copy l Another for department titles l A third for photo cutlines l Use 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 Cover lines Issue date price White space image

Anatomy of a Magazine Cover logo Cover lines Issue date price White space image

Covers: Poster

Covers: One theme, one image

Covers: Multitheme, One-image

Covers: Multitheme, Multi-image

Covers: All Typographic