April 15, 2005

• Your best bet is probably to find a bunch of design annuals from magazines like Print and eye; there's always a couple of really cool ideas in those. Also, school lit magazines are quite possibly the easiest things in the world to lay out (especially if it's the "experimental" or "avant-garde" one on campus) because you can do pretty much anything and the editorial board will like it. You can certainly try the hardcore Raygun-ish experimental grunge stuff (although you'd probably want to stay away from, say, typesetting a poem in Wingdings), or you can do the ultra-restrained minimalist look with a single sans-serif, a single serif, and very little ornamentation. Don't be too tied to the "look" of other literary mags; rarely will you ever get a chance to make something truly your own.
• Oh, and take a look at the world around you. So many things can quickly become a visual motif; for one mag I did, we made fake filmstrip negatives for our table of contents, and took the barcode images off the edges of negatives for our titles. A bit cliche, but works really well in a snap. You could take street signs, airport navigation icons, etc., etc. and try to come up with ways you could make them fit the sorts of objects you need, ex. story titles, author bylines, etc.
• potatoes. You need images of potatoes in there. Or else it's not a real lit mag.
• i agree with chrominance... find stuff that you like it and copy it. practice makes perfect- thats how i learned to be a designer... well that and publishing a zine... btw, your CD arrived yesterday.
• The Elements of Typographic Style, by Robert Bringhurst.
• There is a book i always keep on my shelf called The Form Of The Book (that's the book's name not the shelf's name - i haven't quite decided if i should begin naming my shelves yet; Kevin seems like a decent name for a mid-height shelf...) ... er yeah, anyway TFOTB is by Jan Tschichold and is sub-titled "essays on the morality of good design". It gives you a solid grounding in the 'anatomy' of type layout and book design. Once learned you can break the rules. Note that the hardback and is insanely priced after ten or so years (woot! ebay here i come!). Tschichold has done a shed load of other good reference books on design since so i have some catching up to it seems. Also see Edward R. Tufte's The Visual Display of Quantitative Information as another solid place to start. Checking your local or school library seems the best bet as design books are notoriously pricey. For a quicker fix and on a more contemporary tip there is Before & After magazine, who do a weekly newletter and have nifty downloadable tutorials.
• Oh, and this is probably obvious but i'll mention it just in case: the fact that you are using quark should not even be a issue. It's simply a tool and you should not leave any 'toolmarks' on the finished product. Also with this in mind start laying out the mag on paper to begin with - it's quicker and more fluid. Disclaimer: i rarely follow these guidelines myself but i SO know i should.
• Before & After mag is pretty good. For reference though, you can check out the book they put out: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/020179537X/qid=1113524920/sr=8-3/ref=pd_csp_3/103-2680011-1070262?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 It's called "Before and After". For the very basics, (maybe too basic for you?) there's also "The Non-Designers Design book" by Robin Williams. "Elements of Typographic Style" mentioned by JoeChip is a great looking book and incredibly well-written. Disclaimer: I don't have a lot of practical graphic design experience. But I love reading about it.
• go to your campus bookstore. look at all the other reviews and journals for sale on the periodicals rack. get ideas for what you think looks good. use those ideas as you create your own design.
• See also The Non-Designers Design Book by Robin Williams. No nonsense design rules from a graphic design pioneer. It's amazing how passable you can get your stuff simply by following it. Very thin and quick to go through.
• The definitive primer for laying out a document based on a grid: Grid Systems in Graphic Design It may seem a bit dense, but it will show you how to structure a page, and also a longer document like a magazine, very clearly. If you are doing this magazine more than once, buy it and study it. This is a great resource that I still use today. Pricey, but worth every penny!
• I am not sure if you are including art or photographs at all but Editing by Design by Jan V. White is pretty good to help you with coordinating images and type.
• I second The Elements of Typographic Style. Besides that, spend some time looking for the best-design publications out there and try to understand why they're so good. For simple magazine typography, I've always been impressed by Harper's Magazine which is innovative in very subtle ways.
• As a design n00b wannabe*, I heart this thread. Thanks, folks, for the reading suggestions, and good luck Mfpb! *This past year, we had a brainstorm for my school's literary magazine where staff sat around and looked at old copies of other colleges' publications. First time in my life I've ever seen someone try to start a fight over where to put page numbers. At which point we all ignored him and settled for something simple and readable. I guess I'm saying that I wouldn't worry too much. To my taste, form is nice, but content takes precedence.
• To my taste, form is nice, but content takes precedence. Certainly, but bad form can obscure good content.
• I'm currently in a Digital Media Studies program and I was a bit nervous because I was heavy on the programming and very light on the design theory. The Robing Williams book, while simple, helps a lot.
• The great thing about the Robin Williams book is that it helps with that feeling that novice designers have which is: "This doesn't look right, but what the heck's wrong?!"
• "This doesn't look right, but what the heck's wrong?!" Because Robin Williams is in it? I don't mind his music, and as a bloke he's ok looking. But come on! What the hell possessed him to think he looked like Sinatra??
• Er, I think you might mean Robbie Williams.
• Argh! My mistake. It was four in the morning here. Robin Williams, once loved comedian, now hated for making that stupid Bicentenniel Man. By me of course. Although not as hated as those who made I, Robot. *stands in the corner*