Magazine Design and Layout Tips

 What is magazine layout design?

A layout is an important part of graphic design and it is formed by the arrangement of elements in the design as per a brand's style and character. Magazine layout design refers to the process in which all vital elements such as headlines, running heads, body copies, bylines, images, and captions are aligned in a perfect manner. This creates a layout that will improve the reading experience for the audience.

Tips And tricks For Creating A Great Magazine Design/Layout

 

1. Wrap Text Around Images in Unusual Ways

Boxy limitations of a traditional text frame often leave the reader and the designer feel uninspired. By wrapping text around images in unusual ways, designers create layouts that are less grid-like and more free-flowing. This is a great technique for better integrating photography with text, in order to create a unified look.

 

2. Use Photos That Have A Bird's Eye View

Make a drastic change to the angle of your photos for instant interest. Aerial shots are on-trend and utterly absorbing—they work particularly well for food and drinks titles, but travel and photo-journalism titles will also benefit from an aerial shot of a sweeping city view.

Aerial shots allow you to merge typography into the photo seamlessly—try filling those gaps with unusual headers and chunks of body text for an eclectic, creative style.

 

3. Create 3-D Effects

Create multiple layers of text and images to build up a 3-D look on your 2-D layouts. Cut away the subject of a photo from the background and use this tried-and-tested layers formula to create a 3-D look that jumps out of the page.

When designing, expand the Layers panel and create a series of layers in this order: Background of Photo, Text Behind, Subject of Photo, and, finally, Text in Front at the top of the pile. Splitting up your content in this way will help you achieve the your desired 3-D look. 

 

4. Make The Table Of Contents More Aesthetic and Colorful

The cover might be the reason why someone initially picks your magazine off the shelf, but the contents page is the real anchor for the whole publication. The reader’s first port of call before they even get to articles and features, the contents page is an opportunity to create a style master for the rest of the magazine’s layouts, and it’s the perfect place to exercise some creativity too.

After all, nobody wants to read a long, dull list—introduce images, color, interesting typography and an unusual grid to give your contents page some life. You won’t regret spending the time perfecting this all-important spread.

 

5. Make Your Spread Pop!

The opening spread of an inside feature is crying out for big, bold typography. It makes a great pairing with dramatic photography, and choice of typeface and color can really set the mood for the whole feature.

Try an elegant sans serif like Didot for Vogue-esque/Royal appeal, or pick a rounded sans serif to make your layouts feel fun, childlike and bursting with energy. Laslty, Theme your typography around the subject of the article, and don’t be afraid to make it as bold, brash and loud as possible. It’s a sure-fire way to keep your readers engaged.

 

6. Insert Infographics

Images and text are the building blocks of any magazine. But combining them in infographics can really give your content some punch.

Most pages of your magazine either feature images, blocks of text, or both. A page or even double page spread that breaks up this pattern by using an infographic is going to immediately catch the reader’s eye and therefore their attention.

Infographics are a great way of imparting complex information for what would otherwise be a very text-intensive article as they make ideas easier to absorb and remember. 

 

7. Focus on Fonts

Choosing the correct fonts can make a massive difference to the quality of your magazine design. The key thing to remember is that your headlines and body text don’t have to be in the same font. 

Combining a stylish serif font for your headlines, with a modern sans-serif for the body text can have a really powerful impact.The most important thing to keep in mind is that the font of your body text needs to be easy to read.

 

8. Grab The Reader's Attention With Pull Quotes

 

 

 

 

Pull quotes can be used to give a flavor of what is coming in the articles. A pull quote is a quote taken directly from the article that is presented in a much larger font than the body text. 

 It can even be given its own page if the impact of such a statement is worthy of the content. By choosing pull quotes that will really peak the interest of the reader you can immerse them into articles, they might not otherwise read. The design of your pull quotes can have a strong impact, so it’s definitely worth putting some effort into these.

 

9. Use White Space

 

Whilst content is obviously the most important thing on the page, it needs room to breathe. Try to keep away from the desire to fill every page from top to bottom. Leaving white space not only makes your design look stylish but helps to draw the eye to the content you want your readers to be focusing on. Too much going on can be quite off putting. 

 

 

 

 

10. Be Consistent

Once you’ve found a style that works for you, stick to it. It becomes really jarring for the reader to look at a plethora of styles within the same magazine. This means that everything from the page numbering style to the typography and background colors should follow the same style. This gives your magazine its identity and makes it more comfortable to read.

 

 

 

 

 

11. Harness Contrast

Visual contrast is one of the designer’s most powerful tools and easiest to deploy. Contrasts in scale, color and tone can result in powerful covers and dramatic spreads. If you want to make an image loom even larger, reduce the title size. If you want to really shout about something, increase the size of the text until it blows off the page. 

 

 

 

12. Pay Attention To Details

The better you can understand your content, the more sensitive and nuanced your design can be. The more you know about your audience, the smarter you can be with your delivery.

The deeper your knowledge of great editorial design, the quicker you can call on inspiration when trying out ideas – or know which clichés or tropes to avoid. Spend time with the content , in order to be able to put together the work more intuitively.

 

13. Design For The Reader

Magazine audiences can be very broad – socially, geographically, age-wise – and as such some might not appreciate adventurous layouts or challenging typesetting.

Adapting your style and producing legible and accessible work is vital to engaging your audience; the same goes for decisions around paper stock, page size and count, and so on. Every design decision should be made intentionally with the end user in mind.

 

14. Strike A Balance

There are three main things to manage and strike that perfect balance - typography, visual appeal and aesthetics. It is easy for a designer to get carried away by just the looks of a magazine. But a good looking magazine with bad readability is of no good use.

 

Similarly, a magazine with great content will risk all its worth if it messes up its layout and aesthetics. As a designer, you should take keen interest in creating an appealing magazine that gives great reading and visual experience to its readers.

 

 

 

 

  

15. Know All About Your Printer

 

The printing aspect carries significant importance in the process of a magazine design layout. Any magazine designing tips will be incomplete without this. 

 

The designer has to know his printer in and out; the paper quality that can be used, the differences in color intensities, and discrepancies if any that will be there in a designed and final (print) copy.

 

How Do Art Magazines Use These Magazine Tips? 

Art magazines use wrapping text around images in unusual ways, in order to create layouts that are less grid-like, unified and more free-flowing. Art magazines also use many aerial shots as this allows it to merge typography into the photo seamlessly. This is achieved by filling gaps with unusual headers and chunks of body text, in order to create a more eclectic style.

 

Art magazines also create multiple layers of text and images to build up a 3-D look on their 2-D layouts. This is not only aesthetically appealing, but also catches the attention of the reader and helps them engage with the magazine. 

 

Art magazines are well-known to introduce images, color, interesting typography and unusual grids to their table of contents in order to give them a personality of their own. Art magazines also use big bold typorgraphy for their opening spreads as this creates a great flow with dramatic photography. 

 

Art magazines use rounded sans serif a lot, in order to make their layouts fun, childlike and bursting with energy. Designers also theme their typography around the subject of the article. This makes the text look loud and ensures that the reader is engaged with the magazine. 

 

Art magazines also create many inforgraphics, in order to give their content some punch. Designers use these inforgraphics as a means to simplify complex information for what would otherwise be a very text-intensive article. Art magazines use these inforgraphics in order to help the reader absorb and remember the ideas in an easier and efficient way. 

Art magazines also focus a lot on their fonts, as choosing the correct fonts reflect the quality of the magazine's layout designs. Art magazines are well-known for combining a stylish serif font for their headlines, with a modern sans-serif for their body text. Designers use this technique, in order to have a really powerful impact
on the reader, while making the body text easier to read. 

Art magazines also use pull quotes in order to give the reader a flavor of what's coming in the articles. These pull quotes are usually said by the artist, whose painting/art is being featured in the article. Art magazines use pull quotes in order to  peak the interest of the reader, which helps them immerse into the articles.  

 

 Laslty, art magazines use a lot of white space in order to make their design look stylish. White space also helps the reader to direct their attention more on the artwork than the content. As this gives the reader enough room to appreciate the artwork itself and not just the article.  

 

Sources:

PGBS, PGBS. “Magazine Layout Design Helpful Tips & Guide with Examples.” PGBS, PGBS, 14 Apr. 2022, https://www.proglobalbusinesssolutions.com/magazine-layout-design/.

Morris, Sam. “5 Pro Tricks to Instantly Improve Your Magazine Layouts.” InDesignSkills, InDesignSkills, 12 Oct. 2021, https://www.indesignskills.com/inspiration/magazine-layout-design/.

Kanti, Andina. “Magazine Design: 9 Incredible Tips You Can Try Now.” MagLoft, MagLoft, 5 May 2021, https://www.magloft.com/blog/incredible-magazine-design-tips/.

Tonge, Luke. “14 Best-Practice Rules for Striking Editorial Design.” Creative Bloq, Creative Bloq, 25 Sept. 2018, https://www.creativebloq.com/advice/editorial-design-tips.

India, Outsource to. “5 Useful Tips for Magazine Design Layout - outsource2india.” Outsource to India, Outsource to India, 21 Apr. 2022, https://www.outsource2india.com/creative-services/articles/magazine-design-layout-tips.asp.