How to Design a Magazine Layout | Issuu (2024)

1. Start with the Basics

2. Your Magazine’s Purpose

3. Hierarchy and Readability

4. Magazine Spread Design Elements

   1. Headlines

   2. Subheadings

   3. Creative Images (with captions)

   4. Body Copy

   5. Interviews

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   6. Ads

   7. Digital Extras

5. Putting it All Together

Start with the Basics

Before assembling all the pieces together into a spread, it’s important to make sure all your magazine components serve a purpose and are individually interesting. Their message should be clear and not clouded by excessive design. In order to create harmony within the page and the magazine, many designers will use a design guide that incorporates alignment, hierarchy, color codes, and spacing. For publishers, choosing the right font is also crucial to make sure all design elements are legible. Creating a mood board will help encompass all of the designer’s inspirations, including color palettes, font choices, and layout designs.

Your Magazine's Purpose

Establishing the purpose or the overarching mission is important when designing a magazine or any other publication. It will affect the color scheme and magazine layout design which will, in turn, lead readers towards your storyline. When figuring out your magazine’s purpose, also consider how to best communicate it. Would it be more effective through images with captions or through text?

Magazines can be categorized into three main types: general interest, special interest, and professional magazines. As the name suggests, general interest magazines cater to the wider audience and include topics like food, fashion, sports, and entertainment. Special magazines discuss specific topics with more technical knowledge. Examples include Psychology Today and The Keto Diet. Finally, professional magazines are tailored towards readers interested in a specific profession. For example, Aviation Week and Space Technology.

At the end of the day, ensure that the purpose of your digital magazine can be summarized in less than three sentences and answers the question: Why should I read this?

Hierarchy and Readability

Hierarchy in publications helps readers quickly determine whether that page is relevant to them and if they should continue reading. Therefore, making sure your headlines and other highlighted quotes grab the reader’s attention and accurately showcase key points is important.

Readability in magazines refers to two aspects: the size and style of the font as well as the language used. Font choice directly impacts the branding of your magazine, so the right style should be chosen to best represent the overall tone and design of your magazine.

When hierarchy is used well, it should lead readers through the magazine in the order or journey the writer expected. Other than just numbering, components such as color, size, font and even position of images can be used to establish hierarchy. Play around with your layout to see how it affects the way people move through the magazine page spread.

1. Headlines

David Ogilvy, known as the Father of Advertising, had often been heard saying, “five times as many people read the headlines as the body copy.” The right headline not only draws people in but creates more conversions than we think. Think back on all the times we were browsing the magazine racks before we checked out or at the shop before boarding our flight. We never pick it up until a specific headline catches our attention. If it’s especially interesting, we act on it and take it to register. It’s no different with digital magazines. In order to stand out amongst a sea of other online publications, your headline should compel readers to keep reading. If you need some inspiration, keep reading. We’ve listed a few common templates for headlines that would work well in different situations.

1. X number of the best _____

2. X number of ways to _____ without

3. Try _____ and get _____

4. _____ vs. _____

5. Here’s what you don’t know about _____

2. Subheadings

Subheadings are usually located under the headline in smaller fonts and are meant to give more details about the story following the headline. They can be broken down into different levels like H2, H3, and H4. Some best practice guidelines for subheadings are to keep them short and succinct and give readers a sneak peek into what they can expect in the body paragraph. It should be like a trailer to a movie that is your body content.

Here’s an example of an effective heading and subheading combo from The Knot’s latest issue from Fall 2022.

Heading: Let’s talk about money.

Subheading: Financial Advice from Experts, Wedding Budget Tips and Tricks plus Registry Picks that will Last a Lifetime.

4. Body Copy

Just because there is less copy in a magazine as compared to newsletters, doesn’t make the body copy any less important. In fact, it becomes more important that every word should count and serve a purpose. Adjectives should be used sparingly, and a lack of experience in a particular topic can be augmented by plenty of research and thorough interviews.

The benefit of digital magazines for more longer-form body content is that readers are able to scroll or enlarge the page to full screen so that it is easier to read.

A quick step-by-step guide to writing a magazine article is to:

1. Know your audience

2. Determine a point of view to write for or an unbiased tone for that writes from both sides

3. Understand the ask or purpose of the page

4. Research (similar publications, credible sources, and any other primary sources)

5. Interview multiple sources

6. Finally, write!

5. Interviews

One of the most interesting types of articles to read is interviews. You can almost visualize the interview as if it were a video instead of just reading words on a screen. When preparing and writing interviews for magazines, one of the most important steps is to prepare the questions carefully. Since there is usually a time limit on how long you can speak to the interviewee, it’s important to make every question meaningful and lead to a long, open response.

Interview-type articles can be written in three different forms: Literal, Narrative, and Combination.The literal format would be to just write down questions and answers word for word and only have slight edits to make the copy more readable. Narrative would be to describe to readers what was said in the interview. Combination would be to describe the conversation to readers and include a narrative while including quotes from the interviewee.

6. Ads

Ad space in magazines is always in high demand. This is because readers have already pre-selected what they are interested in and it’s easier to reach your target audience. It’s also desirable because magazines have built up their brand, and ads in that space often have more credibility because magazines share that prestige with them. Readers often look forward to finding ads in magazines as opposed to other places because they are looking for recommendations from their favorite, reputable sources.

Previously, the drawbacks of traditional magazine advertising are that they can be slow to distribute and it’s often difficult to track clicks or their success. However, with digital magazines, it’s easier to track any marketing metrics you may have.

To create an effective magazine layout, make sure all your design elements are consistent and serve a purpose. Test them out individually by removing them to see if they are an absolute necessity. With your spread ready, the next step is to publish on Issuu and share your magazine with our millions of readers.

Whether you’re just starting out or are looking to update your magazine spread design, explore Issuu’s interactive features to take your digital magazine to the next level. To differentiate between print magazines and digital magazines, make sure to include multimedia elements like embedding videos and conversion boosting CTAs. Finally, when your magazine is ready to publish, try out our Article Stories feature to create social-friendly content in minutes!

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