Magazine Comparison

This task focussed on identifying desktop publishing elements between two articles, one of a lower and one of a higher quality. The task was to identify and comment on these differences. I chose to compare the November 2015 special edition of Wallpaper* magazine with the July 2018 edition of Ideal Home, focussing on interior design articles.

Wallpaper* magazine uses a lot of white space, which allows the design to breathe and lets the images become a main feature. The body text is in large blocks, so the use of white space allows balance on the page. This also complements the sleek contemporary products and interiors exhibited in the article. It could also be said that white space has been used to accentuate the overall design of the article as well as the content.

The article in Ideal Home magazine has very little white space, making the pages look cramped and contributes to the lower end appearance of the publication — it doesn’t have the luxury of using white space so routinely throughout the design. The lack of white space shows that the readers are more focussed on the products featured rather than the overall design.

Wallpaper* has a complementary, modern and limited colour palette made of shades of blue alongside black and white. The subdued use of colour helps to convey a sophisticated air to the article. This complements the photos and helps to highlight the jewel-toned accents of the furniture; the three different shades of blue help to highlight the beginning of the article, a pull quote and a sidebar.

Green has been used to highlight ‘Sarah’s Style’ throughout the Ideal Home article. As the print quality isn’t great in this magazine, the paler green gets lost in the design. However, the colour does follow the botanical luxe theme of the article. The majority of colour is featured in the images in the double page spread, with the theme of blues and yellows, making green an obvious choice to incorporate into the rest of the design. This use of colour also complements the theme of the products- fresh, fun and tropical themed.

A classic serif typeface has been used for the body text of the Wallpaper* article, continuing the sophisticated theme. The photo captions are easy to identify as they are a block sans serif font. Subheadings, the pull quote and the information featured in the sidebar are all in a bold classic serif style font, setting them apart from the main body text and making them easier to read, but also keeping the design sleek and easy to follow while bridging between the caption typeface, keeping the overall use of type cohesive. The use of a large raised capital at the beginning of the article breaks the chunk of white space, and introduces colour to the design outwith the use of images, allowing the type to also act as a design element.

There are three distinct fonts use in the Ideal Home article. The article title and subheadings on the verso of the article are a serif script, caption text and subheadings on the recto side are a block sans serif, and the body typeface is a clean serif. In my opinion, there are too many different type techniques being used in this article and it makes it appear cramped, giving the impression that the design of the article is less important than the products it shows, and therefore making the design feel lower-end. I also feel that the subtext/caption text is too thin, adding to the chaos of the page. However, the use of a drop capital at the beginning of the article draws attention of the reader and directs them to the start of the body text.

References:

Jarman, S. (2018). Sarah’s Style: Make it Work for You. Ideal Home, pp.36, 37.

Arlidge, J. (2015). Modern Times. Wallpaper*, (200), pp.137–142.

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