Editorial designing is the art of creating a form for the content of the publications, whether they be digital or for print. Editorial designers aspire to create a form that makes the content visually appealing to the reader and conveys their client’s ideology, values, and attitude.
Importance of Form
So, before beginning to work on any project, it’s your part of the responsibility as an editorial designer to understand the purpose of your content, the aspirations of your client, and your target audience. Only then can you make sure that the content is expressed coherently and consistently throughout the publication and the readers are able to follow it and want to read more of it.
You can do that by keeping your layout distinct and consistent(unless you want to use inconsistency in some way to appeal to your readers) and organizing the content in a meaningful and hierarchical way that aligns with the purpose of the content. With that, you can make sure that your readers are not bored or fatigued when reading it and have ample chance to enjoy the experience of reading it.
Elements of Creating a Form
When you get a general idea of the way you should be presenting your content, you start to form a structure to organize it. This structure is the visual representation of the content of the story that you are publishing and includes four key elements:
Layout: Creating a layout means arranging the parts of your content in a way that suits the taste of the readers. Only when a layout is well-defined and continuous would there be a flow and a hierarchy to it that would appeal to the readers.
Color: Whether you’re going for a modern and sophisticated look or an artsy and goofy one that readers consume in their leisure time, using colors, complementing and contrasting them to reflect the character of your content, is a great way to make your design memorable.
Imagery: Images, whether they be in the form of photographs or illustrations, are one of the best ways to allow the readers to relax and reflect on the content they have read. At the same time, they make the publication visually appealing and aesthetic to the new readers.
Typography: Whether you plan to create a new typeface or want to use an existing one for your client, you need to know the variety of typefaces they are and which ones would be suitable to convey the content of your publication. It is just as important as imagery in catching and maintaining the attention and interest of the readers.
Your responsibility as an editorial designer is to ensure that all these elements remain consistent and direct the readers’ attention where you want them to.