Principles and elements of editorial design
Martina Caruana HND 2 GD
Contents
Editorial Design 3 Editorial Logo 4 Cover Lines 5 Grids 6 Headline 7 Standfirst 8 Pull Quote 9 Task 2 10 - 11 Drop Cap 12 Text wrap around 13 Captions 14 Box 15 Turn Arrow 16 Neville Brody 17 Josef Muller Brockmann 18 Wolfgang Weingart 19
Editorial Design
Editorial design, creates, define and redesign the layout of books, magazines, newspapers and any kind of editorial pieces that have as a target communication. Each piece should be designed under the aesthetics and functionality rules.
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Editorial Logo Editorial Logo is the design of the name of the magazine as featured on the cover.
These types of editorial logos are very simple and clean. However, they are presented in a way that add an interesting element to them. In the Sunday Circle logo, the way the Sunday is incorporated with the roundness of the ‘C’ makes it more interesting and appealing. Despite of their simplicity they are effective since they present the magazine in a good way. The editorial logo is not obstructed, like what is done in the majority of the magazines where part of the logo is covered by the image featuring on the cover. The editorial logo should be given its deserved importance.
When it comes to this editorial logo we can clearly see the difference from the previous examples. It seems less professional and it does not have a prominence in the cover, in fact, we can notice that words from an advert has almost the same type size of the logo. The typeface used in the logo is also not the best possible choice, since it has some bad design elements. Also the effects added to the logo, that is the shadow, make it look very unprofessional. Editorial logos should be kept as simple and clean as possible.
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Cover Lines Cover lines are short statements found on the cover of the magazine that describe the articles inside. Their purpose is to attract the reader.
As the aim of cover lines is to seek the attention of the reader to view or buy that item, special attention should be given to the way they are designed. In my opinion, in this case, the cover line is well put together. The name of the person being featured is in a larger typeface to give it more importance, than below a brief description of what the feature discusses of that person. Although different typefaces where used, the designer put it all well together. Even though it takes a large space in the cover it does not hinder the editorial logo.
In some cases like this, even though it has a moderate amount of words in it, the way it is presented makes it too bold. The typeface used is too big and the fact that it is all in capital letters it adds emphasis to it. Compared to the size of the cover it takes up ample space, which does not work very well in this case. Although it is important that the cover lines attract the reader they should be given secondary importance. Also sometimes they are not blended well with the cover and the background, and there is too much going one in one page.
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Grids Grids are the wire-frame of the layout of a spread, they are used to help the consistency of the design and the
general aesthetic.
Grids and columns are very important since they help break up the content and improves readability. In this case, the layout is very neat and well executed. Although it may be seen as a bit boring, it may be that the designer chose this layout because so that to relate to the content of the article, since it is about OCD. Thus the designer might have chosen a clean layout so that if some of the readers have OCD it will be easier for them to read the article since everything seems in order.
We can see here that the layout design is quite complicated especially in the article headline section. There is a combination of more than one image and text onto the image itself. This creates a bit of a chaos onto the page and the readers eyes may feel lost upon viewing the page since there is a lot going on. The second image could have been easily inserted between the columns of text in the bottom part of the page so that to create a balance.
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Headline A headline is a text at the top of an article, indicating the nature of the article below it. They must be chosen very carefully since they define if the article is read.
In this example of a headline we can see how it was incorporated into the text of the article. Although this isn’t commonly seen, it adds more interest to the layout design. In this case it works perfectly well since it looks like it is framed between the text, thus it is implying also what the article is about, portrait of an artist. By using this choice of positioning it gives the idea of a portrait framed within the text itself.
In this case, the headline of the article is a bit too large compared to the stand-first and the text. The designer also chose to hyphenate the text of the headline. I think that’s it does not make it any more effective than if it would have not been hyphenated. Also it is not visually appealing to hyphenate any text especially a headline. It may be that the designer did it on purpose but it seems that he used hyphenation because of the lack of space he had for the headline. He could have decreased the font size, the headline would have remained prominently either way.
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Stand-first Stand-first is an introductory paragraph in an article, printed in a larger or bolder type or in capitals, which summarizes the article.
Generally standfirsts are in some way combined in the headline area. They are most commonly find just beneath the headline like in the example here. We can see that the designer opted for capital letters so that to differentiate it from the rest of the text. In this case, the standfirst is center aligned spread through both columns. This makes it more effective and encourages the reader to read it. This standfirst is well designed as the designer succeeded in creating a balance between the headline, standfirst and the text.
In this example, the stand-first is to dominant which may be misleading to the viewer eyes since one might think that it is the headline rather than a stand-first. The font size is too big, it is making too much emphasis on the stand-first that is not needed. Maybe this was done intentionally since the article is about someone very famous, thus to showcase it more for the public to read it. However, from an editorial design point of view I don’t think it’s the best way to present a stand-first.
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Pull Quote Pull quotes are a small selection of text that is pulled out and quoted in a larger typeface. They are generally used to attract attention to a specific point.
When it comes to pull quotes there are several ways and designs in which they are combined in an article. It mainly depends on the style of the magazine or the article itself. In this case we can see a bit of an unusual design. Only the open quote marks are put near the quote. It is a very interesting design and appealing to the aesthetic visuals of the article. The quote marks here serve to hint that that text is a quote rather than using them to enclose the text between them.
Text within pull quotes should be kept as short as possible, since it will loose it scope of attracting the reader to a particular point, if there is too much to read. In this example the pull quote does not make much effect, it seems it was added there to fill some blank space. It’s alignment is a bit odd since even though it breaks through both of the adjacent columns it is only clearly visible on the right hand side column, because of the alignment of the text. This does not make up an effective layout and it is disturbing to the aesthetic visuals.
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From auction house to the “hottest record in the world”, Mumford & Sons are just happy while it lasts.
Words by Gemma Hampson
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Basking in the sunshine on a sunny afternoon in Dorset, it’s as if summer has finally arrived. We’ve been waiting for it for so long and then, pow, here it is, just one weekend of gloriousness before the rain comes crashing in and autumn arrives. At least we had it for a little while. Mumford & Sons have been busily beavering away in the background. It’s paying off for them. With a complete album under their arm, made with one hundred percent creative control, they were snapped up by Island. Yet even now, these four chums - Marcus Mumford, Winston Marshall, Ben Lovett and Ted Dwane - can’t quite believe it. “We all had other jobs. In fact, a few of us were working in auction houses and were pretty comfortable there,” says bass player Ted, the “nomad” of the group, after opening End Of The Road festival’s main stage to a packed crowd, grasping every sun ray they possibly can in case it abruptly ends. “That’s not to say we feel like we have any secure future,” butts in organist and occasional percussionist Ben. “It’s
interview
surreal to think that we could be doing this for a while. We just love playing music and playing our songs.”
heard us on the radio, sandwiched between Beyonce and Jay-Z on the Jo Whiley show. What does that say about us?”
But there’s no indication that’s going to happen, especially when their October-released album ‘Sigh No More’, packed with gravely vocals, turbo fast banjo picks, intricate and superb harmonies and woody double bass, is tipped to do great things. Radio 1’s Zane Lowe has even labeled it “hottest record in the world today” on his show.
It may reinforce the band’s distaste to be pigeon-holed into folk when they dip a toe into so many other genres, or maybe that they are already bigger than they think.
In the two years since they formed, it’s been a slow, cautious kind of roller coaster, the tea cups of rock ‘n’ roll you might say. Most of last year was spent touring and most of the coming months will also be on the road, but the Mumford clan found just enough time to release an EP through Chess Club, record their debut and take the airwaves by storm.
We just love playing music and playing our songs
But, as Ted says, “There’s no disillusions of grandeur, we just want to share what we’ve got. If this is it, then brilliant. If we can do it for another couple of years, then even better.” And with their contagious optimism, Ben adds: “Maybe in fifty years we’ll still be together, reforming for a guest slot on the garden stage at End Of The Road 2059.” I’ll get my ticket.
“If there’s a band that stands for everything you want to be then there must be something right,” Ben explains. “We got the album to Markus and he said he was on a treadmill when it just clicked.” Even with talk of making the album into a techno record, the band was filled with faith. The techno hasn’t happened…yet. With so many musical tastes in the group -especially the potential influence of Marcus’ love for Disney, Robin Hood and Bugsy Malone - who knows what the future holds. Strangely, American electro rockers Passion Pit, a favourite of the more contemporary listener Ben, have already taken that step and started work on a remix. “We were blown away by them and apparently they were blown away by us. We thought it was hilarious when they asked us, but now they’re doing it,” says an excited Ben. “That has been one of the greatest moments for me, along with the first time I
source: http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/mumford-sons-interview
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Drop Caps Drop Caps are decorative initial caps at the start of the paragraph that drop into a space created within the first few lines of the paragraph.
There are only a couple of functions served by a drop cap: decoration; in a book full of pages filled with text it is considerable to give the reader a bit of decoration once in a while and navigation; it is good also to let the reader know a new section of the book is beginning, it physically alerts you that something new is coming. In these examples, we can see how the drop cap has been in a decorative manner to show the reader an article is beginning. The design is simple and aligned perfectly with the text.
In this case, the way the drop cap is incorporated, it is not serving any of it’s functions. The fact that it is not taking the space through the first few lines does not even show that is put there as a drop cap. One has to start reading to notice that it is a drop cap. Also apart from being too big for a drop cap, it is hidden behind the text which does not give it any importance. Even the colour used, it does not attract someone’s attention to alert him.
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Text wrap around Text wrap around is the spatial relationship that exists amongst graphics and blocks of text. It can be both in a rectangular shape and also in an irregular shape.
Special attention must be given when using text wrapping to include images in an article. Apart from taking care that it will look fine visually, one has to make sure that it does not effect the legibility of the article. In this case, even though irregular text wrapping has been used, it is well executed and theres is ample space between the subject of the image and the text itself. Text wrapping like this does not effect the readability of article and the designer has managed to blend well all together.
In this case, we can see that not much space has been left between the image and text. Even though it does not effect much the readability of the article the alignment of the text is not well executed since words has been split up so that to make enough room for the image. This can be very irritating for someone to read, since one has to go round the image to be able to read the text. Apart from all of this, it does not make the design of the article visually appealing for someone to see.
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Captions Captions in editorial design are actually put there to explain an image, or to tell who is in the image and what is happening.
There are different styles of captions which are used in different cases. Picture captions are intended to give information about the content of the image. The caption and the image should be worked to go together rather than just putting a caption underneath an image. In this case, the caption serves its function perfectly since it gives information about who are the people seen in the image, also the way it is designed encourages the reader to read it.
In this example, although the caption contains relevant information, I think that the information it contains could have been given a little more importance since it contains the authors of the article. Usually the name of the photographer who took the photo is put into a caption, but not the author. The readers won’t bother to read who wrote the article if it is put in small letters in a side caption, unless the article is so good that they want to find out who wrote it.
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Box Box is an item with text and usually an image which has been placed seperately from the main article, by
literally placing it in a box to differentiate it visually.
Boxes are used for different kinds of things, some may include an advertisement of a product that is being mentioned in the article, others may include another story that has a link to the story being mentioned in the article. But mainly, like in this case, the box is being used so that to provide extra important information to the reader, or more details of an upcoming event or how they should apply for something. In this example, the design is simple and neat and serves it function to attract the viewers attention to having more information.
Also in this case, the design of the box attract the viewers attention. However, I would not be tempted to read what’s in this box since there is a lot of confusion going on between the design itself and the information inside. Apart from not being visually appealing, the viewers eyes may be lost in the confusion that he will not be bothered to read it. Also the design used in the background does not help the readability of the text it contains.
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Turn Arrow Turn arrow is a small symbol used at a bottom of a page to symbolize that the article continues on the next page.
Apart form the turn arrow, we also find the use of the end icon in many of the articles. The end icon is a small marking that indicates the end of an article. Generally end icons include the first letter of the editorial logo. These elements like the turn arrow and end icons are pretty standard and do not vary much from one magazine to another. They also visually help the reader so that to keep track of where he is in the reading of the article and also gives a bit of a flow to the article. The symbol generally used for a turn arrow is a small arrow at the end of the page.
Look magazine uses and unusual shape of an arrow as their turn arrow. However, sometimes they choose to add text near the arrow that says ‘more over the page’, which in my opinion is unnecessary since a symbol has a specific meaning attributed to it so there is no need to add text to explain the symbol. Designers could experiment with different kind of symbol arrows and see what’s best for the style of the editorial or article.
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Neville Brody
Neville Brody is one of the most known graphic designers of the 20th Century. He is mostly known for his editorial work for the magazine ‘The Face’. His work in the 1980’s was considered as revolutionary, as he gave a new look to magazines, advertisements, album covers and packaging. He held artistic movements such as Dada, Futurism and Constructivism as his main inspiration. The philosophy of these movements was to deconstruct old ideas about painting and art and design in general. Although many saw Neville
Brody’s work as non-commercial, he made an effort in developing different styles of typography and tear up all the rules. Brody made use of contrasting sizes, shapes or colours of type to attract readers; this meant that he used a variety of different sizes and styles of lettering on the same page, which was very unusual at the time. In his designs for ‘The Face’ magazine he arranges the type in diagonals or in circles, he decided that typography should be integrated in the whole design. The style of lettering should be used to illustrate the article as well as the image or photo and have the same impact.
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Josef Muller Brockmann
Josef muller Brockmann who was part of the international Swiss style, he was influenced by the ideas of several art movements such as Constructivism, DeStijl, Suprematism and the Bauhaus. He is mostly known for poster advertisements especially those he did for the ZĂźrich Town Hall. He also produced a couple of books, which provide an analysis of his process of development of an idea and his philosophies. In his books he shows the process from illustrative to functional graphic design. Brockmann summarized design elements to focus on a core message with a clean and clear visual aesthetic.
A key to this approach involved the use of the grid, which Brockmann is very famous for. He divided the space into a number of horizontal and vertical units, each with consistent spacing between them. The grid was fundamental in his work as it defined the constant dimensions of the design space and elements that are inserted in it. Brockmann said that a grid system creates a “sense of compact planning, intelligibility and clarity, and suggests orderliness of design�.
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Wolfgang Weingart
Wolfgang Wiengart was mainly influences by his teachers Armin Hoffman and Emil Ruder, which where two major designers during the 1950’s and 1960’s. The fact that they made part of the International Swiss style implies that Wolfgang was influenced by the use of the grid as well, and this is reflected in the style of his work. He made use mostly of sans-serif typefaces as they where seen as practical for achieving a clear and functional communication. Through experimentation he became interested in how far he could push the qualities of type while still maintain its purpose, as he believed that typography could
be both functional and noteworthy. He tried to break away from the traditional rules of layout and experimented with how type could be interacted with the rest of the composition. Weingart sought new ways of creating images, adopting the halftone screens and benday films used in the photo-mechanical processes as his new tools beginning in the mid-1970’s, which was a radical new approach for combining images and letters. He boasted his design by relying solely on these film manipulations and overlapping of colours. Through his experimentations, Weingart was inventing his own visual language.
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