Have you caught yourself reading a magazine or a newspaper and can’t put it down? Did the big and compelling fonts pull you in to read a new column or feature, or is it the images that you can’t stop looking at? Whatever reason it was, it’s all thanks to editorial design, which you could read more about here.
What is Editorial Design?
Editorial design is a graphic design discipline covering publications such as newspapers, books, and magazines. Over time, editorial design has also made it on the internet thanks to online magazines and ebooks. Annual reports and whitepapers are considered by some agencies and graphic design services created under editorial design as well.
But what makes this design discipline important?
Editorial design is necessary to ensure the structure and organization of a publication. Plus, editorial design helps in presenting information to the reader. You don’t want to overwhelm the reader. Or you don’t want to waste a lot of space on one page.
What is Included?
In a typical publication, you have these elements:
- Cover
- Table of contents
- Headline
- Bylines
- Body copy
- Images
- Image captions
- Panels
How Do You Create an Editorial Design?
Editorial design is complex for beginners. Creating one from scratch takes time, considering you have to learn about graphic design principles to produce an editorial design. With the tips we’ve provided, here’s how to create an editorial design.
1. Finalize Your Written Content
One key component of editorial design is your written content. Whether you're working with a writer or you're the writer, make sure that an editor has reviewed the written content. This way, no errors are shown in the final draft of the editorial before publishing.
2. Prepare Your Images
Editorial design is also visual. Most magazines and newspapers would have at least one image per page. It’s advisable to use original images to avoid any copyright issues during publishing. However, if you don’t do professional photography or your studio shots don’t fit the article, you can use stock images.
Additionally, if you can, provide various sizes or dimensions. Editorial design layouts have limited spaces for images since it’s more text-based. With this in mind, you can still include your preferred image without compromising on the layout.
3. Browse Various Editorial Designs
If you’re a newbie to the editorial design world, it doesn’t hurt to look at published editorial designs. After all, you can get inspiration on how your publication would appear. You need to finalize the layouts for all pages and the cover page!
4. Use a Graphic Design Application
Once you’ve gathered all of your resources, it’s time to use a graphic design software application to create your publication. Some graphic design applications offer templates for easier editing. However, you can create one from scratch and are good to go!
Tips to Create a Great Editorial Design
Know your audience
When designing your publication, you have to keep in mind the audience AT ALL TIMES. Who’s the content made for, and who do you expect to read your publication are two essential questions.
Plus, you don’t have to rely on graphic design trends for this, though. The design should depend on the readership base. For example, if your readership base is above 40 years old, you want to present them with information with readable fonts and a structured layout. Meanwhile, younger readers would respond better to publications with bright colors, bigger fonts, and asymmetry.
Make Use of White Space
In most publications, you’ll notice negative space most of the time. Don’t be afraid to utilize that when conceptualizing the design of your publication. After all, the structure is key in creating a great editorial design. And you don’t want to put all details and images into one page. White space can create balance and help separate different elements in your publication.
Use Appropriate Typography
One important element in any editorial design is typography. With the right typography, you can engage the reader to flip the pages. You want to make sure that the font you’re using is appropriate to your target audience. Aside from that, you want to stick to two fonts at most, preferably those that match well.
Follow Visual Hierarchy Elements
Editorial design is the best medium to test out visual hierarchy. Elements like balance, contrast, proximity, alignment, and patterns should be observed at all times. You want to ensure that content is organized throughout.
Remember Pacing
When you read a magazine, sometimes you take your time reading the piece. Whereas with other pieces, you can’t wait to flip the page. Design plays a role in how your audience will read your content. Take note of imagery and column width and length, which will improve pacing.
8 Examples of Editorial Designs
1. Continuum
Renowned design agency Pentagram has also dabbled in editorial design and helped publications like New York Magazine, Time, and Cosmopolitan with their covers and visual content. But one of their best projects is the Continuum online magazine. Their redesign of the neurology journal gave the publication a modern and lively look, making it more appealing. The cover style is still in use by the publication.
2. The Guardian
Image credit to: Design Week
One of the UK’s largest newspaper companies, The Guardian, had a redesign in 2016. It’s one example of an editorial design that modernizes, considering that publications have made the shift online. The masthead and color were its major changes of the newspaper. The color in particular labels sections such as news, sports, arts, and lifestyle. Their newspaper makes their pages or spreads packed with text and images, but they know how to separate different stories and pieces through panels and colors.
3. Oversharing My Selves
Image credit to: Dossier Industries
Here’s one example of a book design that emphasizes the importance of editorial design. Oversharing My Selves is a book about beauty and self-exploration, and it was designed by Annette Dennis. Instead of opting for the traditional way poems are presented on a page, this book has molded text into a curvy body. And there’s a preview page showing the text fitting on a woman’s illustrated body. It’s a great way to present a poem and illustrate points.
4. Park Hyatt
The Park Hyatt coffee table book by The Flat Studios shows that editorial design can also reflect the branding of a business. You can see elegance and sophistication translated on the page through the use of serif fonts, colors, and high-quality photos. Not only that, they ensured that it was organized to give it a classy look and give guests a feast for the eyes during their stay in the hotel.
5. Westminster Group
An annual report is a publication that you might not expect to have a design for. After all, stakeholders only want the numbers. But it’s not so bad to give it some embellishments. Toast Design created this annual report for the Westminster Group. Instead of the usual tables and charts, they added photos, colored some graphs and tables, and made the annual report look more professional.
6. SPRI
Design agency Smith created the SPRI Newsletter. Here, they used a white and icy blue motif to represent the “polar” purpose of the research institute and museum. It may appear like a newspaper, but the use of white space gives it a more casual look. The agency also ensured visual hierarchy through different typography sizes and image placements.
7. NYC World Pride
Originally, this project by the Bellweather agency is more on advertising. However, they also produced an editorial design for Pride Magazine. The magazine uses striking colors and huge fonts, which will help readers glue their eyes to the page.
8. McKenzie-Delis Packer Review
Annual reviews shouldn’t have to be dull. In fact, you can give it life with illustrations and bursts of color, like this one from the McKenzie-Delis Packer Review. Created by JDJ Design, this review has stunning visuals, illustrations, icons, and suitable typography; it would be hard to put this review down.
Conclusion
When it comes to publications, presenting data and making it compelling is the priority. Sometimes, it may require additional work on the designers' part by adding engaging and visually appealing graphics to give the publication more life and make readers flip through the pages seamlessly. Editorial designers are crucial in ensuring that these are accounted for through graphic design tips and techniques to give publications structure.
