Graphic Design That Works

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Asking magazine designers how they reach their final layouts is a lot like

asking painters, photographers, or novelists how they conceive and pro-

duce their masterpieces. They may be able to tell you how they begin or

what inspires them, but the actual mental processes involved often remain

mysterious—to the artists themselves as well as to the rest of the world.

Some university design programs focus heavily on process. In the real

world, however, time for such formalities is rare as designers rush to close

issues against strict printer deadlines. The design process is often guided

by a helpful grid or patched together miraculously by association, sudden

brainstorms, and last-minute tweaking.

Here’s a look at how some designers define their own processes, plus a

peek inside one designer’s mind as he perfects the layout of an important

magazine section.

Creative Process

left and opposite page

At

Entertainment Weekly

and

Walking,

designers

begin with the photo-

graphs or illustrations and

let layouts build naturally

around them.

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Job:12-84823 Title:RP-Graphic Design That Works (LDW)

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Designers usually start the page layout process with

the element that most emphatically sets the tone for

the magazine’s personality. “Sometimes we’ll start a

design before the photography is in, but the design al-

ways depends on art,” says Geraldine Hessler, creative

director of

Entertainment Weekly.

“We make a map of

the entire feature well. We may cut a page from some-

thing else if we have a good photo shoot. We allow

ourselves a lot of leeway to play up good art.”

An

Entertainment Weekly

layout is “reactionary,”

Hessler says. “We work with the editors to come up

with a headline that works with the art and story.”

Then designers alter the type to further illustrate the

topic or concept. “It’s almost like geometry,” Hessler

says. “There is a certain set of givens, and we have to

work with them.”

Walking

art director Lisa Sergi likewise always waits

for an issue’s commissioned photographs and illustra-

tions to come in before beginning her work. As for the

Walking

designers, artwork inspires the graphics,

headline fonts, layout, and colors that Sergi chooses.

From there, she simply launches into a design with a

natural feeling of balance and flow.

“It’s instinctive,” she says. “I just go with what feels

right and makes sense. I don’t make a huge effort to go

through a formal design and review process, though I’ll

do printouts and look at them to make sure they look

the same on paper as on the screen. But I usually go

with my gut feeling, trying to put the strong stuff up

front and put together a good mix of text-heavy fea-

tures and sidebars.”

Art Is Life

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