Complete Guide to Newspaper and Magazine Design

Class 1: Introduction to Design

• Design Definition: A system of planning where the person arranging elements has influence over selection.
• Layout Definition: Arrangement of elements, usually without voice in element preparation or selection.
• Recognizing the Design Concept:
  • Aids solo designs.
  • Enables team collaboration.
  • Facilitates teaching.
• Design Process Systematization:
  • Provides clear steps.
  • Offers calendar management.
  • Ensures organization.
  • Handles staffing.
  • Establishes vocabulary.
  • Enhances communication.
  • Improves teachability.
• Designing is Planning
• Conceptual Integrity and Balance

Tasks and Professionals

• Editor-in-Chief:
  • Interacts with most people daily.
  • Highest responsibility for publication content.
  • Works with the art director and subordinate staff like managing editor, photo editor, and production manager.
• Art Director or Design Editor:
  • Handles presentation and organization of content.
  • Manages external commissions and in-house materials.
  • Assigns work to illustrators and photographers.
  • Needs knowledge of the publication's message and how to convey it through design.
• Production Manager:
  • Manages compilation of material, production calendar, and flat plan.
• Managing Editors and Section Editors:
  • Oversee specific issues and determine published content.
• Photography/Photo/Picture Editor:
  • Coordinates assignments for photographers and manages intellectual property rights.
• Designers:
  • Responsible for laying out editorial pages.
• Studio Manager:
  • Coordinates and supervises interaction among the studio, photography section, and production department.
  • Ensures deadlines are met and elements are properly configured.
• Newsroom Staff (Reporters and Writers):
  • Limited say in the design and layout.
• Advertising Department:
  • Requests and/or pays for specific ad placements, influencing layout.

Professional Profiles in Digital News Media

• Editors or Coordinators:
  • Direct influence on content and resources.
  • Plan future stories and monitor developing stories.
  • Track audience stats (visits, time spent on page).
• Homepage Editors:
  • Decide on content and establish an information hierarchy.
  • Write headlines and select/edit photos.
• Desk Editors / Photo and Video Desk Editors:
  • Follow developments and report in internet-compatible formats.
  • Edit and repurpose content from others.
• Reporters:
  • Establish and maintain contacts with sources and create content.
• Participation / Community Managers / Social Media Editors:
  • Connect audiences with the newsroom by fostering interactions and designing campaigns/content.
  • Gage audience engagement.
• News Librarians:
  • Develop information products and archive old publications.
• Information Architecture (IA) Professionals:
  • Organize and classify content in physical spaces like pages.
  • Adapt content to user needs for understanding and absorption.
• Usability and User Experience (UX) Professionals:
  • Fulfill user needs and enhance brand perception.
  • Conduct audience research.
• Designers:
  • Handle the graphic appearance of the page.
• Front-End Developers:
  • Construct pages using HTML (structure; semantic markup language), CSS (style; style language), and JavaScript (actions; front-end programming language).
• Back-End Developers:
  • Use programming languages like Java and PHP to add functionality and connect sites with databases.
  • Manage and maintain databases.
• Product or Project Managers (PM):
  • Handle conception and execution of products and services controlling task and process development.

Class 2: Formats & Principles

• Principles of Design: balance, proportion, contrast, unity, focus
• Balance:
  • Harmony in element placement.
  • Weight depends on size, shape, and tone (photos and headlines).
  • Large, irregular, and dark elements weigh more.
  • Types: formal/symmetrical vs. asymmetrical (one large and two small elements).
• Proportion:
  • Relation among elements and between each element and the whole page.
  • Among parts: Main content blocks shouldn't look the same.
  • Between each part and the whole: Sufficient size must be allocated to main elements.
• Contrast:
  • Important elements should stand out.
  • Relations between element sizes.
  • Mixing different shapes.
  • Tone: Continents in color vs. black and white.
  • Texture: Different type weights; photos.
  • Directions: Movements in the page.
• Unity:
  • Achieved through invariable repetition and unifying devices: grid, typography, page architecture
  • Coherence among diverse page elements and between pages.
• Focus:
  • Establish a clear starting point.
  • Editorial decisions on main and secondary elements.
  • Identified with the center of visual impact and hierarchy.
  • Balance headlines, subheadings, photos, white space, and text.
• Page Architecture:
  • Methods for placing content.
  • Dividing the page into blocks and spaces.
  • Ensuring a clear reading line.
• Gutenberg Diagram/10:30 Formula:
  • Readers view pages diagonally from top left (primary optical area) to bottom right (terminal area).
  • Important information should be in the top left.
  • Elements with visual weight should be located in each corner.
• Center of Visual Impact
  • Placed wherever desired, often a picture.
  • One CVI per page (or per two-page spread).
  • Other points of attention should not compete with the CVI.
  • Established by the designer to attract reader attention.
  • Variable position determined by the dominant element's location.
• Formats and Proportions:
  • Format includes dimensions and proportions.
  • Proportion: Aspect ratio doesn't change with size.
  • Important for newspapers, as print scaling can be difficult.
• Dimensions:
  • Width x Height, with units of measurement.
  • A4: 210 \times 297 mm
  • A3: 297 \times 420 mm
  • Square: 1:1 (less natural, often avoided).
• Newspaper Formats:
  • American tabloid: 30 \times 30 cm
  • American broadsheet: 30 \times 60
  • European tabloid: longer
  • European broadsheet: longer and wider than US editions.
  • Newspapers shrinking: tabloids losing height, broadsheets losing width.
• Why Study Newspaper and Magazine Formats:
  • Tabloids were linked to popular press; broadsheets, to serious papers.
  • Printing outsourcing/centralization standardizes formats.
  • Larger magazines imply higher quality and an upmarket image, often with a spine.
• Type Areas:
  • Dimensions minus margins.
  • Division of Space:
  • Vertical: Characters on baselines.
  • Horizontal: Columns and gutters (white space).
• Modules: Spaces for advertisement sales.

Class 3: Grids and Type

• Grids and Advertisement Integration:
  • Elements: baseline, grids, margins, columns, gaps
  • Physical dimensions
  • Type area (dimensions minus margins),
  • Number of lines based on leading
  • Modules (minimum ad unit),
  • Internal headings or folios
  • Two-page spread (left: even/verso, right: odd/recto).
• Margins:
  • Fore-edge: exterior margin.
  • Head margin: shorter than the foot (bottom).
  • Inside/back margin: usually smaller.
• Type Area:
  • Also known as "mancha."
• Leading:
  • Space between lines.
  • Determines the typeside.
• Baseline:
  • Where type is laid out.
• Module:
  • Minimum ad selling unity, described as base x height.
  • Usually at the bottom and exterior area, such as the right side of the page.
• Type
  • Typography: The style and appearance of printed material; arranging type or processing data and printing from it.
  • Type: Characters of letters that are printed or shown on a screen.
• Stem:
  • The main stroke of the character.
• Serif:
  • The shape that finishes some strokes.
  • Division based on serif and sans serif.
• Brackets:
  • Serifs meet the strokes at more of a curve.
• X-height:
  * The height of a lowercase letter without ascenders or descenders.
  * The X-height affects the perceived size of text.
• Typeface and Font:
  • Typeface: Set of one or more fonts sharing common design features.
  • Font: Complete set of characters of a typeface in a particular size, weight, and style.
• Contrast:
  * The difference of stroke width within each character.
• Serif Roman Styles: *Old Style (Roman):
  • Found in old/prestigious newspapers.
    • Transitional:
  • More common with refined straight lines/more readable.
    • Modern:
  • High contrast; looks more elegant.

Class 4: Type and Elements of Design

• Styles within a typeface:
  • Regular: Upright characters relating to style and weight.
  • Full caps: All letters are uppercase at upper case size.
  • Small caps: All uppercase but at lower case height.
• Units of Measurement:
  • 1 pica = 4.23 mm (postscript pica).
  • 1 pica = 12 DTP points.
• Tracking:
  • Setting space between all characters in a paragraph/text.
  • Negative tracking increases text density.
  • Positive tracking reduces text density.
• Kerning:
  • Setting space between two consecutive characters to balance spaces in a word.
• Fassett's Theorem:
  • Lines with 45 to 60 characters are legible; exceeding limits risks illegibility.
• Weight: Thickness of stroke (like bold).
• Leading (interlínea):
  • For body text (body copy), follows baseline grid setting.
  • Format: size/leading (e.g., 24/24 pt).
• Headlines: text size = leading.
• Body text: Leading should be 0.5 to 1 pt greater than text size (e.g., 8.5/9 pt or 8.5/9.5 pt).
• Visual Cues:
  • Color.
  • Form.
  • Depth.

Class 5: Structural Elements and Photos

• Folio:
  • Page number (exterior), publication title and date (interior).
  • Symmetrical layout on facing pages.
• Standing Head:
  • Small heading that packages stories; continuity across pages and issues.
  • May include a pict related to the topic.
• Headlines:
  • No justification, hyphenation, or full stops.
  • Balance line length and limit the number of lines based on headline width.
  • Type size indicates hierarchy; make headlines different for news, features, and opinion pieces via size, weight, and alignment and style.
• Kicker:
  • Above the headline.
• Deck:
  • Below the headline (introductory or summary deck).
  • Includes byline and dateline.
• Byline and Dateline:
  • Byline: Article author(s).
  • Dateline: Reporting location.
  • Print media: dateline does not include the date; digital media: includes time and date when the article was first published and/or updated.
• Subheadings (Crossheads):
  • Short headings between body text paragraphs with optional white space above.
  • Should contrast with body copy (heavier, bigger, sans serif) respecting the grid.
  • Breaks up body text; don’t place at the top or bottom of the body text frame.
  • No indentation after.
• Highlights:
  • General information about the article.
• Quotes:
  • Directly from the source.
• Jumps and Refers:
  • Tells readers where text continues.
• Photos and Illustrations:
• Functions of Photos:
  • Informative: directly related to the news event.
  • Documentary: shows the action as it happened or consequences.
  • Symbolic: represents the story’s theme.
  • Illustrative: generic or from the archive.
  • Esthetic: artistically good.
  • Entertainment: makes the reader smile.
• Choosing a Photo:
  • Information: adds relevant information.
  • Exclusivity: not shown in other newspapers.
  • Esthetic quality: composition, color, balance.
  • Technical quality: resolution.
  • Intention: image it communicates.
  • Reflect the community without stereotypes.
• Contrast in Photo:
  • Contrast of size, value, shape, and character.
  • Simpler photos: small; complex photos: bigger.
• Cropping: Editing or removing unnecessary parts focuses attention.
• Photo Caption: type under or alongside, explaining the photo.
  • Needs: name with jobs, event description, explanation if something is confusing.
• Photo Credit: Must credit every photo (author and/or copyright holder).

Class 6: Infographics

• Infographics:
  • Visual data presented concisely.
• Data Visualization:
  • Complex data relationships communicated simply.
• Both infographics and data visualization represent data, with infographics focusing on presentation and data visualization on exploration.
• Data Visualization Focuses: Numbers, Percentage, Data,
  • Data based on people, making it more real.
• Psychic Numbing:
  • Indifference to large numbers that might create more empathy when associated with people.
• Elements of Infographics:
  • Title, subtitle, data source, credit.
  • Sans serif font, text of data tags no smaller than body text.
  • 2D charts, Key/legend, Scale for maps.
• Infographic Types:
  • Tables: horizontal rows and vertical columns.
  • Charts: Line charts display evolution; Bar charts are horizontal, while column charts are vertical.
• Maps:
  • Reflect a 3D surface Earth on 2D
• Diagrams:
  • Fact boxes.

Review

• How information is structured and presented.

• Good design gathers ideas.

• Design from layout.
  Conceptual Integrity

• Unified design and a sense of clarity and economy, seamless.

• Systemization of Design Process:

  • clear and actionable steps for the design process, framework and replicable.

• Professional Roles in Design:

  • Print
    Relationship between editor in chief and art director

• key content leader and key design leader - decide what gets covered

  • Design/art editor : oversee visual elements and commissions
  • Managing editors and section editors: content
  • Photography editors: visuals
  • Design editors: doing the layouts: range of freedom they have
  • Studio manager : flow between floor departmen, design studio and production
  • advertising department: might ask for special ad sizes or care about what content is next to their ads

• Online

  • Roles can be more fluid
  • Editors: overall coverage and content - Web page editors: design websites - balancing between information and what will gain clicks . real time editing

• Desk and photo editors: specific beats and adapting content

  • Designers and web developers
  • Participation and community managers, social media editors, news librarians are all more digital roles

• Formats: physical dimensions and proportions (ratio of width and height)

  • A4
    1:1.414, Digital: 4.3 for ipads - 16.9 for widescreen video ,9.16 for vertical
  • Print - tabloids american vs european- Berliner - American vs European broadsheets- magazines- pocket standard and oversized

• Grids , Margins , Baseline grides, gutters, folios etc : Digital uses grids as well - provides structure

• Print grid : Ads are designed to fit within modules . Smaller ads are usually in the bottom and outside fringes- limits to sizes

• Visual Language

  • Color: emotions, subjective, cultural meanings. - Form : dots, line , shapes - forms have meaning
  • Depth: illusion on flat surface: how you use space, color lighting, time - shadow , perspective , texture , size of objects , overlap

• Movement: real movement, apparent movement graphic movement, implied movement

• Elements of Design

  • Line, Shape, Texture.
  • Real feel, Visual feel.
  • Size : hierarchy, Value, Contrast.
  • Color : CYMK is the printing color.
  • Hue, Saturation, Bright, Value.

• News Layout

  • Folio, Standing head, Kicker, headline, deck - Byline and dateline
  • Subheading and cross heads
  • Highlight and quotes
  • jumps: Photo captions and credit - sidebars, rules, borders, boxes
  • Main body text: Avoid awkward white space.

• Visuals

  • Photos: direct record; informative, document, symbolic, aesthetic, illustrative, entertainment,
    *News value , overall goal , aesthetic value - photo types: stand alone, portrait, photo spread, illustrations.
  • Infographics: making data visible and understandable - title, data source, subtitle, scale - tables , charts, maps, diagram , motion graphics
    *Design: system of planning and choosing elements and arranging them; efficiency and creativitylayout: arrangement of elements - placements-conceptual integrity: consistency across elements - systematic design process

Print and Digital Hierarchies

• Print hierarchy
  *Editors in chief. Art director or design editor
  Production - sector editor. Phot editor. Designers - studio editor. Reporters. Advertising
• Digital hierarchy
  • Editor - more data driven . Homepage editors . Desk editors. reporters. Social media managers- librarians - information architecture - user experience- designers - front end developers - back end developers. project managers

Core Visual Principles:

*Balance: visual equilibrium : symmetrical or asymmetrical - Proportion: relationship between element sizes
*Contrast: showing importance by having something stand out, unity consistency . focus: clear starting point for the page - CVI

Formulas:

Gutenberg pattern we read in the Z shape. CVI is the center of visual impact meant to be the item with the most visual weight that we will see first

Format:

• Width and height is crucial for scaling. American and European versions of tabloids and broadsheets. Grids are essential for organizing space : page dimensions, edges, baselines, leading , columns number, modules etc - typeface is the family
• font: specific family Ideal line length: 49 to 60 characters Visual cues. Color: subjective. Depth: creating that 3D . Forms: dots, lines, shapes . Movement:

Elements of design

*Line - Shape - texture - Space. Size -Value -Color
Photos: photo capture reality . News value, exclusive, technical value etc
Watch cropping and provide captions. Headshots , portraits stand alone, photo story
Illustrations are transformed representations :infographics fall here. Good for abstract information or when a specific look is needed
Infographics are based in data visualization : makes data feel real to avoid numbing

Key Terms Glossary

Ascender:

• Stroke of a lowercase letter that rises above the x-height.

Baseline:

• The main reference line on which characters sit.

Body Text/Copy:

• The main part of the text that develops the content of a work.

Body Size/Body Height:

• The size at which a certain text element is set.

Bracket:

• The part that connects any stroke and a serif.

Broadsheet:

• A large format newspaper, typically associated with serious papers.

Charts:

• Information graphics used to display quantitative data, such as line charts, bar charts, and pictograms.

CMYK:

• Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and blacK or Key; a subtractive color model used in printing.

Column Rule:

• A vertical line separating stories or running between columns within a story.

Concept:

• The underlying idea or vision that guides the design process.

Conceptual Integrity:

• Unity, economy, and clarity in design, as described by Frederick P. Brooks Jr.

Contrast (Typography):

• Difference in stroke width within each character of a typeface.

Maps:

• Information graphics representing the Earth or a part of it on a two-dimensional surface.

Diagrams:

• Non-statistical information graphics that explain how something works or how an event happened.

Perspective:

• A depth factor in visual design that creates the illusion of three dimensions on a two-dimensional surface.