Tricks That Magazine Illustration Designers Use In Magazine Graphic Design, UK

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For magazine illustration designers it is essential to understand the market precisely, and to understand how magazine design can impact on the success of the publication. When it comes to magazine graphic design, UK markets will need to target specific audiences and expectations, but simply meeting expectations is not enough. Walk into any newsagent and you’ll see scores of magazines all vying for attention. Often a complete wall is dedicated to advertising magazines, and every publication is competing with its neighbours.

Magazine graphic designers have to somehow combine a knowledge and understanding of expectations within the industry, knowing what works and what doesn’t, what their competitors are doing, how they’re doing it and how successful it is, and how their own publication can stand out. Blending in to expectations and accepted standards whilst trying to stand out from a wall screaming with images, colour and text might seem somewhat contradictory, but this is the life of someone in magazine graphic design. UK audiences do have slightly different expectations and needs compared to overseas audiences, and so for any magazine publisher it will be important to use the services of magazine illustration designers who know and understand the UK magazine market well.

One of the many aspects of effective magazine design is the appropriate selection of fonts and typefaces. A font is the style of text, and the way in which this is chosen can make or break an article, or indeed an entire magazine. There are two basic fonts or typefaces, serif and sans serif. A serif is a small curl or tick which acts as an embellishment at the tops or bottoms of letters; a sans serif does not have this and is typically simpler and more blocky in nature. Bold, clear headlines may work well in a sans serif font, but magazine graphic designers also know that the way in which a reader scans a magazine title or headline is important.

When we read text we don’t read each individual letter. Instead we tend to scan a word at a time and make an assumption about what the word is based on its shape. Using all capitals or a sans serif font can break this reading up, slowing the reader down and actually making the magazine title or headline harder to take in. When you consider the vast amount of competition each and every magazine is up against, it doesn’t make much sense to put obstacles between you and your readers, making it harder for them to quickly pick up on your title.

One of the aspects which magazine illustration designers have to consider carefully is the organised use of space. Sometimes magazine pages can easily become too cluttered, and this can become confusing for readers, especially if articles run to several columns, are split over multiple pages and are broken up by adverts, illustrations or information panels. It requires careful planning to determine a layout which is easy on the eye, creates a fluid impression, helping the reader to follow the article without having to stop in order to find the next section, and yet still looks interesting, and not just a page of text. Creating a basic template or grid is often one of the basic tasks required, and it is this which will help to ensure that all future editions of the publication will follow the same basic format, allowing readers to feel comfortable with the design and layout.

It is important to be aware that in many cases magazines may not have the entire front cover to use as an advertisement. Because of the way in which magazines tend to be stacked on shelves, often it is only the top two or three inches at most which is on display. This means that the masthead is likely to be the only part of a magazine which will be seen by the reader initially. The masthead is often a coloured section including the magazine title and essential items of information such as the topic, the likely appeal, a few eye catching headlines or titles of articles or content included, and perhaps any special offers, free gifts, competitions or other enticements.

It will be important that great attention and thought is given to the masthead for this reason, as decisions made here may well impact on the success of the entire magazine graphic design. UK magazine designers will need to make sure that the magazine masthead manages to both compete with similar magazines jostling for attention just inches away, yet doesn’t achieve this in a way which may be detrimental. Using bold titles, fancy fonts or large capitals can all tend to work against the success of the magazine, since these will be less easily absorbed by the eye as it scans the shelves. Magazine illustration designers will need to consider every colour, every font and every inch of a magazine’s cover and interior pages in order for it to be successful.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

magazine graphic design UK | www.specialdesignstudio.co.uk | magazine illustration designers

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