How to layout your magazine spreads professionally,

How to create a visually interesting and professional looking magazine spread.The main aspects when producing a professional spread in magazine journalism are:

1. Typography
2. Pictures
3. Written Article

Pictures

In journalism photographs can be an important aspect of the article. Images are used in a variety of ways depending on the story or feature. News mostly focuses around point pictures, action shots and identification photos. Magazine journalism focuses on feature photos that are the main focus of the work. The purpose of a feature photograph is to draw in your audience and make them want to read your piece. It is best to keep images simple on one hand – in terms of backdrop and background – but grabbing and bold in the foreground. It is important that you select your best image and apply it to the rule of thirds. Images must ‘bleed’ over the page - a printing term that refers to printing that goes beyond the edge of the sheet before trimming. If using a single point of focus, it’s best to place your subject on the right hand side of the page as this is where the eye naturally settles and the text on the left. Make sure there is plenty of ‘free’ space in the spread for writing to be added.

The size of your spread should be roughly 1280 x 960 as this creates an image that complies with the natural field of vision. Use hue control in editing to adjust skin tones. The best editing software that we use for this is Adobe’s Fireworks CS6 but alternatives such as Photoshop work as well.

 Typography

There are two types of text that are mainly used in journalism:

———————————————————————————————————————–Sans-serif text is typically used in tabloid newspapers such as The Sun. It is believed that this typography is the easiest to read – especially in larger formats. It is clear and bold which allows most people to easily see it.

Serif text is typically used in broadsheet newspapers such as The Independent. In smaller formats, this typography makes it easier to follow text as the letters run easily into each other and follow closely to the lines.

Each typeface has casting off – this is the calculation of the quantity of area which the text will take up due to the given measure and typeface. Therefore, on your magazine spread there will be space appointed alongside your image for an article introduction or perhaps a summary. In publishing, ‘lorem ipsum’ is a placeholder text used to demonstrate the graphic elements of a document or visual presentation, such as font, typography, and layout.

Written article 

The written article for your magazine spread is ultimately up to your own journalistic and artistic style. However, there are two types of layout to choose from to complete your top class spread:

1. Linear
2. Modular

Linear text is similar to the layout of a novel, left to right, line to line down repeating the pattern of rules in a grammatical system. This layout is typical of upmarket magazines such as Elle and Vogue.

Modular text is much more visual but more typical of a downmarket magazine layout as text is assorted in blocks such as Heat.