Magazine Design: How to Create Impactful Layouts

Editorial Design for Magazines

“Congratulations! You have reached the end of this Domestika course. Thanks for taking part! I hope that you found it useful and you’ve picked up some tips on how to create effective layouts that connect with your audience. Now it’s time to finish your own project or to create a new one! You can use the one I've provided, work on your own briefs, if you have them, or maybe reinterpret a feature article from one of your favourite magazines. Either way, I strongly suggest you take the time to gather inspiration and make a unique design of your own. Make sure to keep track of your progress with different pictures of each step. It'd be great if you could also explain the choices you've made along the way. Here are the main steps to follow: The brief Understand your brief: who the magazine is aimed at, what it’s trying to tell its reader, what are the characteristics of the brand, and how is its visual identity. With that in mind, consider how you can redesign the magazine to highlight the "look and feel" of the brand. Typography Build a typographic palette that gives your magazine a voice in the right tone you’re looking to achieve. Explore appropriate typefaces for body, headline, captions, etc.

Content and imagery Build a suitable grid, that gives you the structure to design from and rhythm to your feature article. Then, focus on the content – remember you can’t build a narrative without knowing what material you’re working with. Read, digest, and think about other material or imagery you might need to bring your story to life. The layout Once you’ve built yourself this foundation, dive into the actual design of the article. Work fast at the beginning, without judgement, and create as many ideas as you can. When thinking about your opening spread, consider how it might be an opportunity to create slightly more impact. With the ideas that you think are working, start to refine and finesse. Reviewing Proof your work – ideally in print – and see whether there are any areas that can work better. Pay attention to typography, image, text sections, possible captions, etc. Then, finesse your layout again in InDesign, based on the revisions you identified. If the article is being sent to print, do the necessary adjustments (for example, margin and image size). I can’t wait to see the project you come up with, so don’t forget to share it in the forum. You can do so by clicking on "Create your project". Get involved in the forum, encourage each other, and share your doubts and ideas! I will try my best to answer your questions and give you feedback as often as possible. See you there! ”

Partial transcription of the video

“ Final Project Thanks for joining me on this course. I hope you found it useful. It's now time for your final project. You can use the brief we've supplied, work on one of your own or pick a feature article from your favourite magazine and reinterpret it. At the beginning of this course, we introduced you to the world of magazines, and this is a good place to start. There are so many magazines out there with varied titles, different styles and audiences. Immerse yourself. Start to analyse what other magazines do, what parts of the magazine's anatomy they used to tell their stories, and how...”

This transcript is automatically generated, so it may contain mistakes.

Course summary for: Magazine Design: How to Create Impactful Layouts

• Level: Beginner
• 100% positive reviews (42)
• 2858 students
• 4 units
• 14 lessons (2h 19m)
• 6 downloads

• Category

  Design

• Software

  Adobe InDesign

• Areas

  Branding & Identity, Editorial Design, Graphic Design