Designing is always a challenge, and it doesn’t matter what you are about to design. Today, we will talk about magazine designing. Magazine design is have some particular rules and boundaries, which should be followed while designing.
Before getting into the main part you should know some of the basic principles. Some of the important points which might help you in designing a perfect magazine layout:
1. Different templates and style guides – in the designing world, a consistent design is very important; it not only represents your brand value, but it also engages the user for a very long period of time. Consistent designs are valued in this industry, but that does not mean new designs won’t be getting any further chance.
In fact, more creative peoples and designers are constantly coming up with bright ideas regarding templates and style guides. These new designs are very important because they open up various opportunities for new ideas and innovations.
2. Keep audiences in mind – A good designer always thinks about its audience first. Think about the peoples who will read this particular magazine, think about their mentality and then only you can come up with something that will attract those targeted audiences. Sports magazines are basically meant for people who take an interest in sports, therefore, a design which will attract more and more sport lovers should be very useful.
3. Capture ideas from everything – Generally, designers don’t come with special ideas because they are constantly working on the same design which they have used earlier. This is a common problem faced by every designer. The best thing to do is go outside and relax for few hours; soon you will notice that ideas and various creative designs are coming straight into you. This whole world is filled with beautiful inspirations for designing; one must change his or her perception to seek out some of the best to apply in their creativity. You can carry a notepad with yourself and note down each, and every idea before they vanish from your memory.
4. Getting the perfect cover – Magazine cover is the most important part of a magazine. Generally, a designer spends hours on designing a perfect cover page. Cover of a magazine should be colorful with some brand value and short intro to interesting contents. There are various things that should be done properly like alignment, color selection, text format, etc.
5. Be flexible with other members –Editors are generally working on the content of the magazine, and designers work on the designing part, but team work is very important if a good magazine is to be produced. Editors can take advice from designers about various topics, and similarly, designers can take suggestions from editors.
Team work always helps in producing something different and interesting. If you don’t work in a team, then things will get a bit tough for you, and you won’t be able to explore your creativity as easily.
6. Keeping the text interesting and presentable – Some articles are very long and without any pictures. In this case, designers should keep in mind that text should have proper and attractive format otherwise readers will get bored.
These texts should have a proper heading format and other clever entry points, which make the overall article appealing. Various pull quotes and drop caps should be used with proper format. Numbering and alignment should be used in such a way that it should attract the reader instantly.
7. Without money, there is nothing – In most of the publication company, budget is the main problem which reduces the overall quality of the magazine. If you have a sufficient budget, then getting a perfect and attractive magazine is not at all a problem.
However, nowadays, there are various online designing websites available, which can do your designing work even at low cost. You must research well on the internet to get lists of websites that can provide you excellent designs at cheaper or economical rates.
8. Be a professional designer – Always double check your work, it enhances the overall quality of your magazine’s pages. Each page should be checked by the designers for any kind of flaw, which should be taken care of. Alignments should be checked, and color of text should be maintained.
Designers must ensure that each page contain the same amount of color otherwise readers will find this unequal distribution of colors very disturbing. Make sure that all the unnecessary blank spaces are removed perfectly, and other small mistakes should be removed before publishing the magazine.
9. Understand your printer – You must understand your printer well to get that perfect print which you always wanted. Printers are having various resolution and image settings, which help in getting flawless printing. Always choose the right setting before printing; otherwise you may get faulty printout pages, which will waste your time and money. Check out all the resolutions provided and choose the best one that matches your requirement. Images are very important; therefore, you must make sure that printer is working properly, and printing process is going smoothly without any problems.
10. Complete magazine – Designing a magazine is not a rocket science, with a little bit of creativity and good sense of designing; one can easily create a wonderful magazine. Placing the text properly and getting the perfect articles are not enough. A designer will have to imagine each and every step, right from placing all the text on the pages faultlessly and creating excellent designs that should attract more and more readers. Designers are having a lot of work to do and therefore, they must concentrate on smaller things to get the bigger things done quickly and flawlessly.
Magazine designing is similar to website designing. In both the cases, designers will use their creativity to get the desired result. Designing is not so tough if done with proper care. Above given steps should be followed properly in order to create a master piece. Designers must consult with other designers in case of any problem. In this modern world, professionalism is very important and therefore, many designers work with other designers to gain experience and other creative things.
