Visual Communication - Editorial Design

8/3/2019 Visual Communication - Editorial Design

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Visual Communication Editorial Design

©Talya Shachar-Albocher



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What is editorial design?

Editorial design is the collaboration between a writer and a designer to create aninteresting piece of written material, sometimes punctuated by photography or otherillustration.

The best written plain English document won't be effective - or perhaps won't evenbe read - if it is badly designed. Clear design is just as important as good writing.

“readability” - regards the writing of the material, how easy it is for the reader tounderstand the information contained. This is the job of the writer/editor.

“legibility” - using design to make the material easy on the eye, aid reading flow andenhance the message.



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Design: Abby Roc



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Give Visual Cues

Help your reader find his way around thematerial by understanding hierarchy: thesignposts throughout the text guide the

reader. These are headers and subheads,bullets and initial capitals, evennumbered lists or paragraphs.

What's important? How can we tell?

Size

Weight -bold, italicSpace around – a line/half line spacebefore or after a paragraph or headingPlacement on the pageUsage of lines and rules



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“Breaking up” areas of type

Long, grey "slabs" of typeare like a long, boring

speech -- people tend totune out.

The designer can break upthe layout with spaces,short headings, lines,

areas of color, illustrationsand other images.

These help the reader toeasily find the section theywant.



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Design: Ado Design



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Room to breathe - using white spaceWhite space is an important aidto legibility.Wide margins and plenty of

room at the top and bottom of your page aid to focus thereader's attention withoutgiving an uncomfortablecrowded feeling.

Wider margins used are alsohelpful in eliminating imbalancethat can be caused byimperfect production – if cutting isn't perfect, narrowmargins are a recipe fordisaster.

Design: Charlie Echo



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White space doesn't need

to be white:Case study

The individual framelayout used here meansthe the space lookscomfortably filled in spiteof the fact that there isnot that much content:there are marginsbetween the page edgesto the frames, and thenagain inside the frames to

the beginning of the texts.

What problems can youpinpoint in this layout?



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Legibility forlong-running texts

Typeface (font) choice is probably the most

important of all editorial design decisions. A typeface for long running texts (as opposedto headlines, subheads or callouts/pull-quotes)should be a serif font, not decorative.

A typeface's "x-height" is another important

factor in readability. The x-height is the heightof letters such as x, a and e, which have noascenders (like h) or descenders (like y),compared with capital letters or letters withascenders. Typefaces with a larger x-heightare easier to read than typefaces with asmaller x-height.

Choose clear typefaces for your

main text. Quirky or unusualtypefaces can add character tocovers and headings, but whenused for text they will make yourmaterial much harder to read.



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Design: SP Design

Negative text:Case study

While the layout lookscool and the

hierarchy is clear, if areader would try toread the articlethrough, he wouldfeel uncomfortable.Laying out long textsin reverse -ie whitetext on black background- is adeterrent, and shouldbe avoided.What could lightenthe load in this case?



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Multi-column design

Keep in mind that maximum legibilityruns at about 8-11 words (or 50-75characters) per line.

But also remember that context iseverything.

You will design differently for a book (long term reading, settling downwith a large amount of material and

giving it your full attention) than fora magazine (on-the-fly, whatevercatches your eye, can be put downat a moment's notice) or anadvertisement (maximum impact,grabbing attention, one-two words

of info to pull the reader in).



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Using colorColor can be used as attentiongrabber, atmospherecreator/enhancer or hierarchy

definer. Lines, areas and typeare all possible instances.

If you keep all theseapplications of color aspossibilities in your mind as

you are designing, your designwill be more effective andevocative.



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Using photographs

Design: Brad Keller

Images placed into articlestell an additional story to thatwithin the text. The photos or

illustrations give atmosphere,explanation, and visualinterest.

How the photos are handles(cropping, clipping,duplicating, colormanipulation, percent of pagecoverage) will affect theoverall outlook of thematerial, and should be usedin accordance with themessage of the writtenarticle.



15 Design: Lauren Swanson



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Text wraparound

Design: Kris Zabala

The interaction between the text and theimages should be handled with care.

The designer wants the reader to be able tointuitively carry on reading the naturalcontinuation of the text, and not findthemselves confused as to where theyshould be looking next.

Images with tight contoured shapewraparound can enhance the design greatly,but since they tend to create a feeling of less structure, they should be limited inusage.



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Further interest

http://www.articlesbase.com/entrepreneurship-articles/restaurant-layout-follow-these-simp

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3065/is_1_29/ai_58836541/

http://www.designtoday.net/print-design/rules-of-color-in-print-design.html

http://www.articlesbase.com/entrepreneurship-articles/restaurant-layout-follow-these-simple-design-rules-to-make-your-business-a-success-2189558.html



http://www.articlesbase.com/entrepreneurship-articles/restaurant-layout-follow-these-simple-design-rules-to-make-your-business-a-success-2189558.html

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