chimpzy said:
As other pointed out, more variety in article length will provide your readers with a more pleasant read and breaks up the monotony
Also, include more white space. You seem to want to go for the minimalist, classy style of magazine, so you need a good amount of empty space to let the page breathe a little. Right now, you have quite a few pages that are a wall of text, which is a big no-no for most types of magazines. It is tiring to read and might outright turn off some readers. You used a streamer on some of them, but there are more things you could do:
- using more images is a quick solution, but has the risk of undoing the minimalist approach. You can however also use graphs or even cartoons (if tasteful).
- use more line spacing between paragraphs. This will create more white space, breaks up your text and provides more structure, making your text easier to read.
- speaking of paragraphs: giving them subheads wouldn't hurt, for the same reasons as the comment about more line spacing above. As a rule of thumb these should be short (2-3 words) and descriptive of the paragraphs contents.
- you could put in sidebars that go a little deeper into a term or concept from the body copy.
- Simply leave more white space. Make the gutter between columns a little bigger. Leave some room between headlines/images and body copy
Lastly, know to 'kill your darlings' i.e. leaving out all unnecessary words and information. This might be a superfluous comment as I've only briefly skimmed over the texts (OP, could take a more thorough look if you want), but it is something many aspiring writers tend to forget. If a sentence repeats information already written somewhere earlier in the article, scrap it ,unless the article is very long and the reader might need a reminder. Using a lot of adjectives? You're not writing prose, so unless they're needed to get your point across, get rid of them. Generally speaking, the trick is to find a balance between providing as much information as possible and doing so with the least amount of words.
Thanks for the best layout/design feedback I've received thus far.
I admit, the layout isn't perfect and there are a more than a few things I'd like to work with. Not to make excuses for myself, but this was done over two nights and has been my biggest design project so far. I used to edit a (campus) newspaper, and thus I'd say I inherited most of my design sensibilities from the paper I used to work with: simple, straightforward, striving for some sort of "elegant utilitarian" approach. That's why some pages are pretty simple "walls of text." My efforts to lessen that feeling were pull quotes and that lengthwise red stripe, but I certainly could've done more. Pages 7, 10, 20, and maybe 34 all need a little more. As for white space, I agree there should be more of it. Though personally I think the the baseline, font size, and gutters are all spacious enough, the spaces around images and headlines/bylines/etc. could have been managed better. I suppose I like page 25 in that regard, although the title is too close to the image... whatever. Better luck next time, I guess.
More varied illustrations are something I desperately want to have. I actually
hate that every picture is either a screenshot (Persona 3, Final Fantasy VII, Skullgirls), video game wallpaper (Spec Ops, Assassin's Creed), or some stock photo (the film reel, cogs and gears, coins.) I would've loved to have have done my own illustrations or recruited a friend to help out, but again, time (and in my case lack of creative skillz) is a challenge. It would've done wonders to make the magazine more unique and visually interesting, as well as to make arranging elements easier since I'd have been working with them since their conception and not just trying to hammer preexisting pieces into my layout. I really hope to change that for next time.
I don't know why subheads are so divisive... I think they're a great idea. Sidebars, too (although I'm sure how to implement them ideally in a two column page). The only issue I have with subheads is ensuring that they're organic and not arbitrary, by which I mean including them because they genuinely work and make sense and not because, "shit, we haven't used one in three paragraphs."
chimpzy said:
DeadpanLunatic said:
Lastly, know to 'kill your darlings'...
I've personally edited all pieces in the issue. Certainly they are not perfect or above critique, but I don't need any backseat editing either, especially if you admit to not even having read the articles.
Just meant it as a general piece of advice from a former journalist to aspiring ones. I'm sure you've done a good job, but it is something I've seen many beginners forget or underestimate. I used to be guilty of it myself and I still catch myself neglecting it too much. I suppose you could boil it down to 'don't be happy with a text too quickly'. I always find it a good idea to walk away from a text for a few hours to do something else and come back to it later for another reread. There's almost always some unnecessary words you can weed out or a sentence you could phrase a little more compact.
Personally, I think it depends on the intent of the publication. If it's a daily newspaper, then yes, economy is everything. But since this is for a magazine that occurs every two months, then I think it's perfectly acceptable to be a bit flowery and ambitious with the writing, especially if the angle calls for it. Long-form writing on specialized topics of interest demand a different approach in comparison to paraphrased press releases and basic news writing. Regardless, I agree that clarity and intelligibility should never be compromised.
DeadpanLunatic said:
Of course, we could spread a 1,500 word article over 20 pages, with image spreads, pull quotes, cartoons, sidebars, graphs and statistics up the wazoo, but past a certain point the effort is hardly worth it. No amount of dressing up will sell the magazine if you just don't like lengthy features, and eventually the spark and glitter gets in the way of actually reading the article without interruption.
Strongly disagree, here. The point is to make the publication appealing and inviting, not to trick people into reading it by dressing it up. For example, I'm pretty sure I'd like to read Kotaku, but that website is hideous and I can't bring myself to read it. Conversely, if I made the text upside down or chose a really ugly font, nobody would even attempt to read it, regardless of if they generally like that sort of content. I should be doing everything I can as layout designer to make the magazine as visually pleasing an easy to read as possible.
Fappy said:
Just glanced through it before I grab some food and the layout looks interesting but could use some touching up. What program do you use?
Adobe InDesign CS5.5. I'm always looking for detailed layout feedback, so I'd love to hear what you have to say.
