Coming from a Graphic Design background made me extremely appreciative of editorial design. Like many graphic artists I can spend hours browsing through magazines in a store; looking at layouts, typography usage, photography and just feel the texture of glossy paper. However, despite my love for really cool designs I sometimes notice that the content does not measure up to the layout quality and is often overcompensated by creative usage of typography or interesting images. I am not writing this to bash the magazines out there. I am writing to talk about the ones I love. I have been subscribed and bought a variety of different publications, mostly focusing on current affairs, art, fashion, design and food.
Recently I have gotten into the habit of trying new ones and I have discovered a few really good ones such as the Russian Magazine Snob, the British Living Etc, Elephant and a few others. Although The Economist and Vanity Fair are still my favorite. The reason for that has less to do with design itself, but more with a clear and focused content. My interest in magazines led me to think that it would be an interesting experiment to analyze the magazines I buy and see what makes them good. I will focus on the brand message, content relevance, typography and layout design. The first one I will subject to scrutiny in my next post will be the november issue of Vanity Fair.
