What Do I Do All Day? #02 Magazine layouts

Some of the more regular things that I create as a graphic designer are magazine layouts.

Over the years these have varied from small A5 monthly advertorial magazines that are slipped through your letterbox, right through to full-on specialist publications that can be found on the shelves of WHSmith.

Apart from being regular work, they are often fun as they allow me to flex my creative side a little more extensively (within the general framework of the magazine’s look and feel of course) by employing image manipulation (photo cut-outs and effects) and creating other elements and page decorations as needed – so lots of Photoshop and Illustrator!

Although magazines and similar publications can have a fast turn-around time, they generally have to meet a particular pre-determined publishing deadline, one of the most essential parts of the job – and this is true for every job although often overlooked – is to make sure that the print files are technically appropriate for the production methods employed – ie, that the printed result will accurately represent the proofs that the customer has seen so far. I consider this to be one of my main strengths.