The Seven Basic Elements to Focus on in Magazine Printing

Magazine printing whether as a business venture on its own or as a supplementary tool for other goals will always have seven basic elements that are crucial for its success. These seven elements are what most designers focus on when they print magazines. In this article we will share with you these seven elements in magazine printing. These are the ones that you should focus all your energy and attention and to make your magazines a success.

1. The Name or Title – The first and most crucial thing that you need to think of is the name or title of your magazine. The title usually defines what the magazine printing is all about. For example, magazine names like “popular science”, Newsweek or even Playboy are very identifiable. You should already know what their content is about just by their title. It is important to do this as well with the name of your own magazine. No matter how big or small your color magazine is, the name will define its personality, its content and ultimately its success.

2. Cover Photograph – The next most crucial thing in a magazine is the cover photograph. Many hours and brain storming sessions have always been used to determine what or who is going to be in the cover photograph of a magazine. This is because the cover is basically your main selling point. People in fact judge a magazine by its cover. If they can relate to or engage with the cover, they have a better chance of reading, or even buying the magazine. So it’s a make or break point in terms of the cover, which means you have to make sure the cover photograph is the best and most enticing as it can be.

3. Cover Layout and headlines – After the cover image, the next thing you must focus on is the cover layout. These are basically the supporting points in a magazine. They present the side content that supports the premise of the title and the cover photograph. When done right, most readers finalize their decision of reading or buying a magazine based on this element. So mind this aspect as well to make sure your magazine’s success.

4. Cover material – Now, we go on to details. The cover material itself must be something you must take care off. You may have the best layout, the best name and the best cover image, but if your cover material is flimsy looking and cheap, those designs will come to nothing. It is always highly recommended to use high quality glossy paper stock in color magazine covers to let the cover shine and invite people. So print your magazine covers in glossy high quality paper if you can.

5. Table of contents advertising – Afterwards, we go to another crucial area of a magazine and that is the table of contents. Though purely a functional area at the outset of magazine printing, nowadays the table of content is where you advertise your other main articles as well. You can emphasize certain content with the proper design of tables of content causing people to read more than they would usually do. So make sure you design a table that is fairly engaging as well.

6. Magazine sections – Of course you can’t have a table of content without sections. Magazine sections are a good way to organize your magazine’s content. You can divide your whole magazine using the major topics and categories of the main theme of your magazine. This makes it easier for you to organize the layout of the whole magazine, and it makes things easier as well to choose and manage writers and editors for each section. So organize your magazine and divide it into sections always.

7. Themes – Finally do not forget your design themes. You magazine must have an overlying theme that spans all the sections of the magazine. This can be something like a dominant color theme, a repeating design symbol or layout. This establishes the identity or even personality of a magazine making distinctly its own kind of print. So always try to make your own design theme for your magazine to make it distinct from the others of its kind.

Great! Those are the seven design elements that define a magazine and are crucial for its success. So make sure you focus on these elements to get the goals you want for your magazine. Good luck!