sHAZIA cHAUDHRY emAILS bACK!
jEREMY lESLIE Rian Hughes comic design
[D]SIGN Investigation The Magazine Issue
You’ve got mail!
“I need your help...” Emailing Design Magazines
With the ever declining sale of paper based magazines we ask...
What’s the Issue with Issuu? e v i s u l c ex
pATRICK bURGOYNE & John Belknap CREATIVE REVIEW
Tell it how it
is.
...Magazine design isn’t so black and white.
Issue No1 April 2011 £4.50 http://danicollenette.gdnm.org/
jEWISH cHRONICAL
[THE] [DESIGN][OF]
[DESIGN]
[MAGAZINES]
Welcome to the Magazine Issue of [D]SIGN investigation Over the last four weeks I have carried out a Design investigation, investigating into the Design of Design magazines. I have emailed art directors, visited magazines and attended talks. using the knowledge that i collected i have displayed my findings in the form of a magazine. [Dani Collenette]
[editor] [art director] [,]
[&][journalist]
[D]SIGN INVESTIGATION - The Magazine Issue - May 2011
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[c][o] [n][t][e] [n]
[t][s][ ][p][a][g][e] Patrick Burgoyne Pg 3-4
Talks about His role as Editor of Creative Review.
John Belknapp Pg 5-6
Talks about Life editing The Jewish Chronicle.
Rian Hughes Pg 7-8
A double spread of his comic and il ustrative masterpieces.
You’ve got mail! Pg 9-11
Emailing Design Magazines.
What’s the Issue with Issuu? Pg 13-14
Paper Vs Digital magazines
Bibliography Pg 15
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pATRICK bURGOYNE Editor of
- Degree In politics - Journalist - Worked for Body Shop - Wrote newsletters - Started as a basic writer at Creative Review
Creative Review While at the creative Review Office Patrick Burgoyne gave us a fantastic insight into what life would be like working in a design magazine, and also into the magazine itself. I was so shocked to find out that just one man is in charge of the design, and he is Paul Penson. Of course he commissions other il ustrators, artists and photographers, but he does the layout and general magazine design on his own. Despite this, I think the magazine is very well designed, with a clear-cut aesthetic, that is both easy to read and displays the different components of the magazine well. Patrick told us how the internet has changed the magazine completely, although it is stil a monthly magazine, they now publish articles lately on the CR website. Patrick also told us how they have a rough plan of the year, in May they know they’ll publish the Annual, in June the degree shows and in September interesting graduates. We asked him why they published the articles they did, he said some of it was chance, for instance if a particular designer happened to be in London at the time, they’d run a piece on him/her. Sometimes topical, because of the
time of the year, sometimes because of influence; for instance when their trip to Kingston University inspired them to do a piece on advertising. The pieces come from all different angles, but all work so well together. Sometimes the in-house journalist writes the articles, but sometimes they do commission people who they think wil work particularly well with a piece, for instance Rick Poyner or David Burn – who have both written for CR in the past. At the start of each four week cycle, the CR team creates what’s known as a ‘flat plan’ which is all the pages laid out in a birds-eye-view form. Patrick has to work out the percentage of editorial (costs money) to the percentage of advertisements (makes money) he says it normally works out to about 30 pages advertisements and 50 pages editorial, so the flat plan is extremely important economically. Only half of the overall income of the magazine comes from its consumers – the other half is from the advertisements. The flat plan is also important when considering what paper stock to use, as paper based
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magazines seem to be generating less and less revenue, the CR team try to create not only a monthly magazine, but a keepsake – something that cannot be re-produced digitally and so holds its value as a paper based tangible item. There are size pages to each section so the CR team knows what borders to work within when choosing more expensive paper such as gloss, or metallic. Patrick also talked about newsstands are not so cost effective as subscribers as they take 40% of the revenue created, and not only that, but they only pay for what they sell, so generate more waste. CR are currently aiming to create an Ipad application, that doesn’t just resemble a magazine, they want to include lots of video, a richer version of the printed magazine, lots of content and make the app something that is purchased – so it generates more income. My trip to Creative Review was so helpful, especial y as it is a magazine that I subscribe too and very much admire.
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John Belknap Editor of
Jewish Chronicle Jewish Chronicle is known most famously for its weekly newspaper, but it does also publish the JC North, JC Home and Interiors, JC Finance, Edge magazine and also Celebration magazine. Contrasting to Creative Review, Jewish Chronicle is rough, it has urgency and therefore is not perfect, but John Belknap says it is very satisfying. It is a very editorial design with many words – many more than Creative Review, but in this case the words are as equally important, as the articles are news worthy. A fantastic snippet of knowledge John gave us was about white space, he said not to fear white space as often you find in magazines and newspapers
everything is on a very tight grid, headlines squashed right to the top of texts and articles only separated by very thin lines, but John said you need to give the articles room to breathe. On the other hand, he did also say that too much white space and you draw the reader’s attention to nothing. John Belknap works very differently to Patrick Burgoyne, he works in a very rushed sketchy manor, due to the fact his time scale is a lot smaller, and the content of the magazine is different. It was so fantastic to be able to get an insight into the two different Medias.
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“
As Jeremy Leslie says in Issues:
Magazines are the dangerous friends of books, always twitching to subvert a rule or two. At the same time they are the smart relations of newspapers, so much better dressed in ink and binding. Whether about world affairs, a curious hobby, fashion, or some area even more ephemeral. They tend to set the aspiration, pitch standards, and go beyond the throwaway event of newsprint or the instant history of a broadcast to give us the illusion of substance.
“
John Belknap explained to us that he loved working for the newspaper as he felt it was a worthy job, and he was designing something that would bring it’s consumers worthy information – it’s not just empty commercial design. John also talked to us about the two key aspects to a good newspaper – grids and typography. He told us how a good find has to have lots of different weights, JC only uses two different fonts, but as each font has about five different weights they can be used to make different parts stand out, but not look messy. A good
font also has to be able to speak to its reader well whether it is a horrific, neutral or comical headline. Someone who John aspired a lot is Willy Flechhaus, who invented magazine grids. He says you can’t find fault with a Flechhaus grid no matter how much you try and pull it apart. To keep the newspaper running swiftly and well designed John has created about fifty templates into which he can use as a basic design for each page.
a mundane colour scheme, to something that is very modern and eye catching – much more with the times and suited to all genres of readers. The colour scheme is now bright and cheery and not seasonal – in my opinion the design works very well as a whole. I found John Belknap very quirky, his way of working was very inspirational, right down to the fact that he used his computer screen on its side, so it was taller than wide, because it fitted the shape of the newspaper better.
When John came to the newspaper he did a complete re-design, the newspaper changed dramatically from a drab everyday design with
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Rian Hughes Typographer, Designer and Illustrator Device
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I was so inspired by a talk from Rian Hughes I have devoted a double page spread to his fantastic illustrations and comic book designs. He designs vary dramatically, and yet I feel, that you can still tell they are all Hughes work. One of the things that inspired me most from his talk is that he is not afraid to move with the times, although he will always love illustrating with Russian ink, he understands that we are living in a digital age and so has found a way to survive in this time by using vector illustration. Kate Gibbs, who did the talk prior to Hughes produced fantastic work, however I felt she was not as successful as she was very stubborn and almost refused to move away from the process of screen printing, which although produces a fantastic ascetic, does not fit so well in this digital age. Hughes has worked for a number of major companies such as Eurostar, DC Comics, Jet Set Radio, Geri Halliwell, Airside, Body Shop, Clarks shoes and My Little Pony. One of my personal favorites of his work is his re design of the DC women superheroes, he manages to capture their traditional values everyone knows and loves, while combining a much more modern feel. Wonder Woman has always been one of my favorite characters - and I love how he has portrayed her here, so her audience is presented with an instant realization who she is.
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You’Ve got mail! Mailing Magazines
My main investigation is the design of design magazines, and so I emailed the following magazines with hope of answers to my questions; Wallpaper*, Creative Review, Design Week, Eye, Artbox, Wired, Juxtapoz, Icon, Blueprint and Grafik. I emailed the art director or each magazine listed above the following questions:
1. Do you find it challenging to design a magazine, based on design itself? 2. How has the evolution of digital technology affected the design of the magazine, and the magazine itself? For example; internet based magazines such as those available on issuu.com, Ipad applications or paper magazines possibly losing their validity in today’s society.
3. The newest and most sought after technology seems to be 3D, everyone seems to want to play a part in its rapid expansion, are you, and if so, how are you aiming to do this? 4. What are the key points to designing a good magazine layout, how do you challenge/work with conventional grids, white space, headline and body text spacing and advertisements. 5. How do you come to selecting an appropriate, engaging and readable typeface? As I would ultimately love to work for a music magazine I also emailed Rocksound and Kerrang magazine, and altered the questions so they were suited to a music magazine. The thing I found most challenging was choosing a subject heading, I first emailed each magazine with the subject as “I need your help”, after 7 days I had no
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response and I thought maybe it sounded too needy, I would imagine most art directors have enough to do without helping a student, so I then changed the subject just to “Hi” as I thought then they may think it is a more friendly thing and have a look at the email. So far Rocksound and Kerrang have replied and said that at the moment with all of the bank holiday weekends they don’t have time to reply, but if I re-send my email they will try there best to reply. Shazia Chaudhry from Icon Magazine on the other hand sent me a very detailed reply, with extremely helpful answers.
[Shazia][Chaudhry]
Icon Magazine
Sorry for the late reply, I did get your first email but it’s been a bit hectic because of all the bank holidays! Answers are below. Let me know how you get on, hope it helps. Shazia 1. Do you find it challenging to design a magazine, based on design itself? Yes, it is challenging. Being an architecture, design and culture magazine means that our readers are very design savvy so the pressure is on to come up with new and exciting content and design. Personally, it also makes the job that much more interesting as I enjoy the content and have the freedom to try different things.
be a good thing. 3. The newest and most sought after technology seems to be 3D, everyone seems to want to play a part in its rapid expansion, are you, and if so, how are you aiming to do this? At the moment no, we’re still deciding how we want digital technologies to play a part in our brand. I think we all forget that Ipads, Iphones, 3D etc are all still very new, they are still growing and constantly changing. As we also organise icon events and guides, we have a lot to consider. 4. What are the key points to designing a good magazine layout, how do you challenge/work with conventional grids, white space, headline and body text spacing and advertisements.
2. How has the evolution of digital technology affected the design of the magazine, and the magazine itself? For example; internet based magazines such as those available on issuu.com, Ipad applications or paper magazines possibly losing their validity in today’s society.
Always remember your audience. It doesn’t matter what kind of magazine you are, you must always remember who you are designing for. This applies to any kind of design in my opinion. Weekly glossy magazines look that way for a reason and although they may not appeal to every designer as “good” design, they are actually great at doing what they are supposed to.
This is a very big question! More of a discussion. Reading a magazine digitally is a very different experience to reading in print. For me, it’s something I only have a short attention span for whereas I can read from print for hours. So I see them as separate markets. At the moment, on Icon we concentrate on the printed magazine which has actually grown in readership recently. Alongside this we have our website which is updated with magazine content, a bit like a blog. Things like our Facebook group and twitter page are used as tools to draw people towards both the printed magazine and website.
Grids aren’t an obstacle, any editorial designer should know this. They serve a purpose in helping to build a brand and when used in the right way, can help to create varying/challenging work. For example, at Icon we have recently redesigned the magazine. We’ve taken on a very unconventional approach to our copy by using varying column widths and it’s only possible to do this by using the grid. If we didn’t it would look like a total mess. We use a vertical and horizontal grid too, so the possibilities are endless.
I don’t see that digital technology will ever mean that print will lose it’s validity, it survived TV and the internet. More of an expansion in means of communication, therefore it can only
In terms of general design (everything else in the list) I try to work with the content. Build the design with the story. That way you insure features are individual. You can usually get a feel for whether something requires a shoot or illustration, needs to be busy or clean etc etc. Whenever
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possible, reading and understanding what you are designing for is a good starting point. All/most magazines will have a separate advertising sales team. They understand the magazine, it’s content, philosophy and most importantly it’s audience so will sell accordingly. Towards the end of the magazine’s production cycle I’ll go through the ads will the sales manager to make sure ads don’t clash with facing editorial. We move ads around accordingly if needs be. This benefits the editorial team as well as the companies advertising. 5. How do you come to selecting an appropriate, engaging and readable typeface? Research, trial and error. You need to get a feel for what kind of magazine you want to be, who your audience is, who you want your audience to be, how the typeface fits into the style of your design. Is it a header? Bodycopy? Even credits, captions and bylines need careful consideration. Do you want lots of different faces for different functions or one that has different treatments.
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What’s the issue with Issuu? Should we fear or embrace digital magazines?
In the 21st century we sit tightly within a digital age, and yet we are still so afraid of an electronic bookshelf. With sales of products like the Amazon Kindle and the Ipad, we are seeing a decline in printed material and an increase of digitally produced information. With magazines feeling forced to provide a website, they are giving their consumer free information, giving the printed magazine less substance and less validity. They also take away the suspense of waiting for the next issue as we are constantly provided with the information we desire. However digital magazines do have their positive attributes as I will discuss below. Some magazines rather than fearing this evolution
have embraced it; they have found a way of still making it economically viable for their consumers while moving with the times. Issuu provides a scrolling bookshelf of “featured magazines”, and also several subheadings, such as Sport
Hobby, Visual Inspiration, Environment, Business Thinking and Great Reading, making the experience a little easier than scrolling through untidy magazine shelves in a newsagents. The copies are also up-to-date so you can access
the most recent copy as soon as it is published. The aspect of the digital magazine that I most enjoy is that you may come across something you wouldn’t have otherwise, something that is either not published as
[Out][with][the] [old][and][in] [with][the][new? ] [D]SIGN INVESTIGATION - The Magazine Issue - May 2011 13
a paper copy, not printed for sale in newsagents, or something produced on a small scale. The example I am using here is a magazine I’ve come across on Issuu called Victor by Hasselblad, it is obviously only a small scale magazine and yet it has 1105 views since it was uploaded on March 1st 2011. It has some amazing photography inside, and is something I would never have been able to view prior to online magazine providers like Issuu. Issuu is also a great idea for those who are visually impaired as you can zoom in and enlarge text size,
for those who find it hard to get around as they can access the magazine of their choice from their own home and also from
Obviously Issuu is not the only resource, but it is well known, easy to use with a clear ascetic and provides a service which
{I][dont][see][that}{digital} {Technology}{willever][mean] [that][print][will][lose][its] [validity,it][survived][TV][and] [the internet.} SHAZIA CHAUNDHRY EYE MAGAZINE an environmental point of view when you take into account the effects of printing hundreds, or possibly thousands of copies, for a company’s carbon footprint.
allows the publishing of books, magazines, portfolios and much more. Some other digital websites available are Zmags, 3Dissue, Yudu, Emagazines,
Digitalmags and Ceros. The images surrounding this text show some different views Issuu provides it;s readers with, when you click on a publication it opens a new window with a black glossy background so you can read your magazine with ease and without any distractions. You are also provided with a list of suggested reading relating to the document you have chosen. If you hover the cursor over the magazine at the top you have a bar with allows you to zoom in and out and also select a particular page number.
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With Special thanks to the following people, places and recourses. Creative Review Offices, with special thanks to Patrick Burgoyne. The Jewish Chronicle Offices, with special thanks to John Belknap. Icon Magazine with special thanks to Shazia Chundhry Kerrang Magazine with special thanks to Alex Shellim Rocksound Magazine with special thanks to Darren Taylor Rian Hughes talk at UCA Epsom Kate Gibbs talk at UCA Epsom Issues, New Magazine Design, by Jeremy Leslie and Lewis Blackwell, 2000. magCulture New Magazine Design, by Jeremy Leslie 2003. designobserver.com
magculture.com
dafont.com
devicefonts.co.uk
Issuu.com
Iconeye.com
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