Six books on magazine design

Magazine design requires creativity and visual storytelling. A clear understanding of how to work with typography, colours, graphics, and grids and columns is a must. Flip through these books to learn about magazine layouts.

Magazines: Inside & Out

Authors: Steven Heller and Teresa Fernandes 

Art director Steven and graphic designer Teresa share insights about how magazine designs work, and how designers are adopting latest styles in magazine designs. The book is divided into five sections — art, architecture, and design; news and business; lifestyle; science and technology; and culture. These chapters delve into different layouts for each category and how to use them correctly. 

Designing for Newspapers and Magazines

Author: Chris Frost

The book contains information about designing both newspapers and magazines. The author sheds light on various details of publishing, ranging from colours to pictures, typography to templates, and style sheets to page planning. Chris, who is head of journalism at Liverpool John Moores University, also apprises readers about publication ethics that need to be followed while designing a page.

Designing Magazines: Inside Periodical Design, Redesign, and Branding 

Editor: Jandos Rothstein 

Thirty-five editors, designers, and consultants have brought together their insights on the process of magazine design in this book. It provides information on designing small and big magazines alike. It will also help readers get a peek into the world of magazines. Many editors have cited case studies of the management responsible for running several magazines. The book also includes information about grids used in magazines, and the redesigning process of a magazine.

The Art Directors’ Handbook of Professional Magazine Design

Authors: Horst Moser Horst, a graphic designer and art director, has included over 1,000 illustrations from various international magazines to help readers understand the process of editorial designing. In this book, you can read about how to design everything from the cover of a magazine to it’s inside pages. Learn tips on using appropriate headings, columns, tables, charts, and numbers in magazines. This book discusses the many challenges art directors face today while designing layouts. It also explains how layouts and designs work differently for different pages like fashion, health, beauty, sports, and transport. 

How to Design and Improve Magazine Layouts 

Author: Raymond Dorn 

One can improve their layout skills by reading this book. The author has given an overview of varied magazine elements — how to design pages, how to choose layouts and how to pick the right tools to execute these layouts, and concepts like grouping and clustering. The book also talks about different types of magazine formats, how to redefine designs, how to use grid systems, and how to use different types of columns in layouts.

Magazine Design That Works

Author: Stacey King

Focusing on around 20 different magazines and their graphic details, Stacy had elucidated the many decisions a designer needs to make on the job. This book will help aspiring designers understand details that go into the final draft of a magazine. It also provides a sneak peek into the illustration process of magazines.