Month: September 2018

 

Designing a digital magazine is much more than placing texts, images and objects. Concepts related to graphic design, editorial design and editing are essential. And, of course, the common sense of the person in charge of performing this task.

A designer is responsible for defining aesthetics, typography, hierarchy levels of information or paragraph styles. The layout designer – often the same person who performs designer role- is the one who follows preestablished design parameters. Additionally, he works to achieve a design that fulfils its purpose in a logic and harmonious way.

One of the main keys to success when we design a magazine is using a plugin to layout. This tool should be easy for us to use in order to offer our readers an imperceptible layout that favours readability of the content and provides fluency to the text. This way, users’ experience is completely satisfactory.

This tool will be our best partner when creating attractive digital publications. However, it is always important to remember the basic aspects of a professional layout to achieve good results.

 

Premises to lay out a digital magazine

 

1. Double-page

 

The starting point is to design the pages from a double-page perspective. This is really important and helpful to establish margins, the explanatory sheet or the numbering of the page. If we face the layout with a double-page view, we will optimize the available space of the publication, which will also allow us to gain visual unity.

 

2. Reticles and margins

 

In order to establish a grid, we should define the size of the margins and the space allocated to the text, the images or any other element that we want to incorporate. In this moment, we should establish the proportions that better suit us the type of magazine we want to create. Do we want to write more? Do we want to prioritise graphic content? This is the moment to conceive and create a ground-breaking design.

 

3. Grid o base grid

 

We can’t forget this element, because it is the one that ensures that the pages harmoniously meet and do not differ between each other. The grid marks the guidelines that will guide us to add the different elements. It is convenient that all the pages keep coherence between them. Lines can also help us with this issue.

 

4. Last baseline

 

We can design some special pages in our digital magazine with a particular design, but as a rule all pages must end at the same height: in the last baseline of the grid. We can’t allow each page to end at a different height if it is not duly justified.

 

5. Widows and orphans

 

At last but not least, two typographical errors that tend to occur very often: widows and orphans: these are the lines or words that remain on a different page or column than the rest of the paragraph to which they belong. A good layout designer should solve these typographical issues playing with the separation of words or the tracking of paragraphs (for example).

The magazine you have in your mind only needs the perfect tool for digital publications. This tool shouldn’t be an impediment but an incentive to your creativity and imagination.

 

 

If we want a detailed presentation of the products or services of our company, there is nothing better than a catalog. It is a very useful advertising medium with a great potential to favor the purchase of goods or the contracting of services by our clients.

However, catalogs in physical format are still part of the strategy of certain companies and still provide good results. Nevertheless, creating a digital catalog will always increase the scope of this type of publication.

Both options are compatible and could coexist, but the development of new technologies, the growing consumption of internet and mobile devices and the possibilities to spread content online lead inevitably to choose digital methods to easily reach more customers: via email, social networks, through the website, etc.

Designing a digital catalog is not an added effort. This way, there is essential to count with a plugin to design that does not need hours of work to get to understand it. Additionally, if it does not require programming knowledge and it can help us to develop the ideas we have, it will be a great tool to achieve our objectives.

Do the catalogs in physical format work for you and do you think that digitizing them will not bring you anything new? The advantages of creating a digital catalog will convince you: renew or die.

 

Main advantages of creating a digital catalog

 

1. Reach

A catalog that moves on the Internet will make it possible to increase its reach. This means more interest in what we sell and increasing the number of potential customers.

2. Attractiveness

Digital catalogs also mean a great advantage in terms of organization of the information and design. Sorting, ranking and attractively presenting information is easier. Remember: we do not just want to be read, we want to captivate, cause a sensation and a great visual impact.

3. Costs

Paper, the printing or the distribution of the catalogs force us to assume costs that we don’t find in digital media. In addition, there is no possibility to modify content: once printed, we can’t add new products, edit any aspect or delete any section. Solve certain incidents means more money or accepting publication mistakes.

4. Time

Time is money. So better don’t lose it. We don’t have to spend our time in tasks such as printing or distributing. Instead, we can perform an emailing or posting on social networks, which will allow us to reach customers directly.

5. Comfort

We should provide clients publications that are easy to consume. If they search us on the internet and quickly find us, we will cause a great impression. We can also think about our own comfort by linking the catalog to the database. This way we can easily get information (both clients and us) about the status of the inventory and the availability of the products.

The originality, creativity and the ability to surprise are issues we should always keep in mind to get rid of the competition and start gaining customers. This is why interactive design in a catalog is a differential element. Creating a digital catalog is not the future but the present.