Magazine Design [Paperback]

Chris Foges (Author)

Book Description

Series: Pro-Graphics | Publication Date: October 1, 1999

Based on practical illustration, this text looks at how editorial designers use elements such as navigational devices, photography, illustration and typography to make a product understandable and attractive. The unique demands of web-based magazines are also discussed.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: RotoVision (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 2880464501
• ISBN-13: 978-2880464509
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 8.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #569,802 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Designer Porn, October 9, 2002

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Magazine Design (Paperback)

I have to echo some of the plaudits and complaints about this book. Yes, it does provide a very nice look at design work from some of the leading magazine designers in the field, with tons of spreads and covers from such ultra high-end publications like Colors, Matador, and the like. But while these can be exhilarating to look at, they're unlikely to be of much practical use except to maybe the 5 or 10 designers in the world who are given the unlimited resources required to produce such works of art.

For the average magazine designer (like myself), the book isn't particularly helpful in helping us try and arrive at elegant design solutions to our problems. The book's emphasis on high-end magazines is of no use for those of us grappling with text-heavy magazines with very little photography. The book does attempt to provide examples of the full gamut of items: from barcodes, to spines, to navigation, typography, and so forth. However in many cases, the text and examples provide only the most cursory of insights-navigation systems in particular was a big disappointment. Obviously, the book is much stronger when it comes to photography-related issues. Extremely vexing is the lack of any discussion of advertising, for example, how to integrate 1/3 page and smaller ads into the overall design. Also irritating is the book's own typography, which is often squint-inducing.

So, I guess I'd file this under "designer porn". Nice to look at, but unless you're a superstar (or rich), you'll never get near any of this stuff. On the utility scale, this rates way low although there is a nice bibliography at the back.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Rather disappointed, February 12, 2001

By 

Sergio Beck (Sao Paulo - SP Brazil) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Magazine Design (Paperback)

I was rather disappointed by this book. It is beautifully designed, but rather empty: I would rather appreciate more exemples and less white space - I specially missed more text, more pictures of beautiful design, specially good design from everyday magazines. The author's background seems to make him favour mostly design and architecture magazines. He seems to forget that some people would also like to know about design for day-to-day magazines. Not only design's state-of-the-art, but also the bread-and-butter of design. The book seeems to have been written for the appreciation of other designers. Well, I'm no designer, I'm a journalist. And I'm not interested in obscure swiss design magazines, but on good exemples of everyday magazines I could take as references for my understanding and practical work as a journalist. Also, the interviews are not interviews at all, but abreviated biographies of a few leading designers. Perhaps they explain something about magazine design, but they seem to be mostly designers' eulogies, for the sakes of the book's content. Even so, it might be a good buy, as I have not been able to find other books on magazine design...

23 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Huge Disappointment, July 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Magazine Design (Paperback)

I'm a self-employed graphic designer who was recently commissioned to redesign a magazine. Looking for inspiration, I bought this book but was sorely disappointed to find no magazine layouts whatsoever-this book is pure photography. No editorial spreads, text layouts, headlines-nothing of the sort you'd expect with a title of "Magazine Design." To boot, there were 4 images of bare-breasted women in the first few pages I flipped through - these editors clearly have an aesthetic to push, which I don't share. I returned it immediately.