Designing a Magazine

Video Transcript

"In this clip, we're going to talk about designing a magazine. There's many issues that you need to think about, before you even lay out the first page of the magazine, and you really need to sit down and map out your way, and address all these issues, before you even get started. The first thing is the distribution. How is your magazine going to go out? Is it going to be mailed? Is it going to go through the newsstand? Is it going to be for sale on the newsstand? or is it going to go out, through a controlled circulation? If it's going through the mail, you need to know that it may have to be covered in a plastic, and you may need to label. If not, you have to leave room for the mailing label. If it goes on the newsstand, it has to actually fit in the physical newsstand, and the last one, is the controlled circulation, then you have much more freedom in that realm. The next thing you need to think about, is overall look and the feel of the magazine. What is it that you're trying to convey, to your readership? The ways in which people get that emotion from a magazine, they read it off of the paperweight, and the binding, are two ways that they get that, and the paperweight can be anything from a newsprint paper, all the way up to a thick glossy stock, and those are the things that will, it can be anything in between, but those are the ways in which people will, you're setting a tone for the magazine, and you also need to think about, what they want to see. Do they want to see you being more eco-friendly, and trying to use a recylcled stock? Do they want to see slick graphics, and glossy fashion shots? Those are the things that you need to think about, and in the binding, you have two choices, and one is a perfect binding, which is what you're used to seeing. It's this sort of binding, where it's bound on the side, it's called perfect binding, and the other one, is saddle stitching, and a good example of that, is Time Magazine, is one that's saddle stitched. One reason it may be saddle stitched, is because it's such a quick turnaround, because it's a weekly magazine. The next thing that you need to do, when you're creating your magazine, is to come up with a style guide. You need to come up with what your type styles are going to be, the way that you're going to handle all your sections, your columns, how you're going to treat images. Are you going to use full color all the time? Are you going to mix with black and white, or maybe even do a tones? and how are you going to treat the table of contents section? because those are the things that you want to establish rules, that then you can follow, so each time that the magazine gets put out, then these are the rules that we follow, and establishing the rules, is one of the most important parts. You want to be consistent month after month, or issue after issue. The front cover and the back cover of your magazine, are the most seen, two pieces of the magazine, obviously, and on the front cover, you want to make sure that you leave room for your blurbs, and you want to make sure that you have, your masthead is well designed, and easy to read, and one note is to also add in, anytime you use a number in your blurbs, you capture people's attentions. Studies have shown that. For some reason, when a number appears in a blurb, then people are much more interested in picking up the magazine, and you can increase sales that way. The back cover of the magazine, is the second most seen, and you want to make sure that you work with your ad department, to make sure that the ad on the back, is a great ad, it's good quality. What it's about, is something that your magazine is about, and that way, people, if it shows up on the back side, then people are much more likely to flip it around, and look at the front. The other thing you need to do, is work with your ad department, and design around your ads. In your placement, you want all your ads up front, most of them upfront. That's where your advertisers are going to want to be. That's where you can charge them a premium, and you also want to make sure that you work with your ad department, and make sure that your editorial and your ads, are set up accordingly, so that you don't have, for example, an editorial and article about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, and then on the next page, you have an ad for Pampers, or some baby product. They wouldn't, that doesn't go together, and so you need to be careful, in your placement, and of all those things, and try to keep competitors from being on facing pages, those kind of things, and once you've addressed all these issues, what you want to do before you do anything else, is to make a mock up, to create something that will, where you have your masthead. You're using all the pages, you're laying in the ads, and something that you can physically touch and work with, and it will teach you so much about what you want to change, what you want to make better, and what you think is working, so that's what you need to think about, when designing a magazine."