Magazine Design
Tips
First-time publishers will, through inexperience, make
a few technical mistakes building their magazine. Many
magazines come through MagazinePublisher.com, some look
great, others, lets say... could use some help. The
following tips for magazine design can make your magazine
a real "page turner."
Get Inspiration
Before you start your magazine, go to a
newsstand and purchase a few magazines that catch your
eye. Take them home and try to decide WHY they caught
your eye. What is it?... the photos? the layout? the
subject of the magazine? Use elements you like in
other magazines to inspire your magazine's layout. And
do your best to not let the computer dictate your
layout. The software works for you not the other way
around.
Use a Great Masthead
The masthead is your magazine's logo. It is
most often located at the top of the cover and should
be the first thing your reader sees. It must be
legible and tell people about your magazine. You have
looked at your magazine thousands of times but your
readers have not. If the masthead is developed with
illegible fonts, people won't view it as you intended.
If your magazine is on the newsstands, there are
other considerations of which you need to be mindful.
Unless your magazine is on the front row, readers will
see only the top 2" of your magazine. Does that area
in your design lock in the reader's attention? Try
testing your magazine by printing out the cover and
putting another magazine in front with the top 2"
showing. Now take a look from across the room. This is
how future purchasers will be seeing it.
Remember, your cover design will be fighting the other covers for attention. A well-designed masthead visually entices the buyer to choose one magazine over others in its category.
Use a Great Cover Photo
DON'T try to save a few bucks on the cover. A well-designed cover can get your magazine noticed and even more importantly, picked up! Therefore, all cover photos must be of a good, high quality photo (in the proper resolution).Choose a photo that is interesting to your potential readers or which tells a story. Showing the unexcited face of an unknown person will not do much to get the potential customer to reach for your magazine. Choose a photo that is recognizable to your target readers or shows action, unusual colors, taken from unusual angles, or combinations of all these.
Remember, your magazine only gets one chance to
make its first impression. Photos are powerful in
making a good first impression.
Careful Font Usage
The choice of fonts can have a major impact on the overall professionalism a magazine conveys. Using too many font faces is visually confusing to the reader. He/she may have trouble distinguishing the stories from the ads. Not to mention that too much "stuff" can be tiring on the eyes.Consider using only one to two font families in
your articles; one for the headlines and subheads, one
for the body text.
Research shows that serif fonts, especially small
ones, are easier to read than san-serif fonts (serifs
are the little tick marks at the end of lines in the
letters). The eye tracks across the serifs of the
letters making reading easier.
ALL CAPS are difficult to read. If you want to
emphasize a word consider using bold versions
of that font as an alternative.
Stretching/compressing fonts look awkward. Consider
the extended or condensed version of that font or even
another font family.
Multi-column Layouts
One trick for having your stories look
professionally built is to use a multi-column grid to
the page. For regular sized magazines try using three
columns, digest sized mags use two. Not only does it
look more professional but text will flow better on
the page and you will have more options for placing
photos.
Don't Be Afraid of "White Space"
Although it can be difficult, consider
leaving some areas of the page blank. Stuffing as much
as you can onto a page is visually overwhelming to the
reader. Experiment with leaving some column white
space in your new multi-column layout. Try running
text in one of the columns only with a photo or graph
covering the other two columns. Try starting your
article halfway down the page with the top half being
reserved for a photo. Experiment - computers make that
easy.
Stay Away from the Edge
Many magazines that come through our facilities have layouts with text too close to the edge of the page. Again, don't try to fill up the entire space. 1/4" margin is the minimum suggestion but better 1/2" or even more, page margin is suggested. Again, it looks more professional adding more white space and you will not worry about the possibility that text might be cut off when the magazine is cut down to size after printing.
Avoid Clip Art
Market research has shown that cartoons do not sell to adults. In this case you are selling the story to the reader. He has not read the story and is deciding whether to or not based on the graphics. If hokey, cheap clip art is used there is a good chance he will not read the article.
Of course if your article deals with child-related
subjects then clip art MAY be acceptable.
Remember...It's Only a Magazine
You have invested a great deal of time, creative energy and perhaps money in your magazine. Because of this, you will be dismayed to have your work judged harshly BUT it still won't be perfect when your time deadline comes around. Keep in mind - you may be the only one that ever notices minor imperfections. You don't hyper-analyze other peoples' magazines - your readers won't hyper-analyze yours! It is only a magazine...not a work of art.
Other Magazine
Tips
Below are a few other tips that will make your
magazine a little more successful.
Don't Forget Contact Info
Now that you have a reader you of course
would like them to be a long-term reader. We see many
magazines come in that forget to tell readers how to
subscribe. Your contents page is a good place to list
the following info:
- your physical address
- your web and email address
- subscription price
- how to subscribe
Learn to Color Balance your Photos
If your photos look terrible and you have no clue how to make them look good... visit this link (pdf). It will explain how to color balance your photos "by the numbers".
Now get to work and good luck.
