Introduction: This example provides a detailed analysis and interpretation of the layout design of Southwest Airlines' in-flight magazine "SPIRIT" to express to us an idea of how to design a beautiful and eye-catching magazine. I hope it can be helpful to my friends~~
Beautiful and eye-catching magazine design
Southwest Airlines' in-flight reading book "SPIRIT" is eye-catching with its beautiful and eye-catching design. Whether it is the layout, pictures, titles or catalog design, there is a lot worth learning. In this article, we will deeply analyze the layout design features of this magazine and see what useful design inspiration we can draw from it.
You are excitedly taking a Southwest Airlines 737 flight to the Grand Canyon, but the thick clouds outside the plane block your view of the scenery outside. When you are bored, you pick up an in-flight magazine and read it. . What do you see? Unlike the periodicals and magazines we usually see, the readers of sky magazines are not fixed, and each issue of the magazine does not have a common theme. It is for this reason that aerial magazines must be able to attract your attention with a unique charm. Southwest Airlines' in-flight magazine "SPIRIT" was co-designed by PENTAGRAM. It contains many short articles that you can easily read. The design of the magazine can quickly give people an impact and is very beautiful. Let’s see what we can learn from this?
keynote:
In order to design an easy-to-read layout, "SPIRIT" magazine uses three main techniques: large headlines, large pictures, and the use of vertical columnar areas repeated on each page. As shown below:
In order to put those tired-looking tourists in the mood to read this magazine, "SPIRTI" deliberately uses some short articles, which generally only take up about one or two pages. Most articles are accompanied by only one picture. The title is short, punchy, and very large in size. Each title expresses only one theme, allowing everyone to quickly understand the meaning (in fact, in design, this should be done at all times). The image is large and simple (which is important) so that everyone knows what it is after just one glance. If you use too many images, it will only make the layout more complicated and convey less direct meaning. This magazine also has a very distinctive feature, that is, when you open the magazine, you will see a vertical thick line inside to arrange the layout, but the colors are different on different pages.
Character determines the theme:
The cover of each issue of the magazine features a large picture of a human being - a very powerful design (the human face is the most attractive graphic element of all images). The whole gives a strong and square area of visual appeal. As shown below:
What role can these eye-catching pictures of people serve as covers? Unlike other magazines, such as sports magazines and fashion magazines, which can have a very distinctive theme or other fancy themes to attract the audience, this air magazine uses pictures of people as the theme to attract the audience, making everyone Visitors feel more intimate. And there is another advantageous factor. Pictures of people can help us communicate faster psychologically. Like the above-mentioned large picture, the picture attracts our attention, and a few lines of text are placed in the lower right corner in a low-key manner. This prevents the text from interfering with the picture, but allows our entire attention to be placed on the picture of the character. Pay attention to the vertical strip on the P word. Its color is the color taken from the image with the eyedropper tool, making the magazine title more closely related to the image.
Beautiful fonts:
Big headlines need a beautiful font that is light and not clunky. Using HTF Didot font is an elegant choice, this font is full of unique lines and style. Let us take a closer look at the characteristics of these various fonts: as shown below:
This font looks elegant at very large sizes, but if it appears at small sizes, those tiny lines are almost unrecognizable. For this reason, HTF Didot has six sizes of font adjustment styles to adapt to smaller sizes. use. As shown in the small picture above, the thin lines are obviously adjusted to thicker lines, so that you can apply it in a small size.
Secondary font:
The magazine uses two fonts to arrange the main text, introduction and other short explanatory text. The key is to choose a font that is neutral, not extreme, and has the right proportions.
A: The heading text above the column uses the Bliss2 font. Its edges are as sharp as the HTF Didot font, but the line changes are not strong and it is easy to read. The text here is all capitalized and the characters are widened.
B: The introduction part also uses the Bliss2 font, and its large and small letters are equally clear. It is very suitable for short text such as very small titles, descriptions and introductions.
C: The subtitle and main text use ITC Cheltenham font, which is often seen in many magazines. A typeface that appeared in the early 20th century. As a font for dense body text, the font is legible and understated.
Big picture:
Very large images—often spanning two facing pages—can have a huge impact on readers. The key when working with large images is to have only one visual focus and no complicated backgrounds.
Single elements are more powerful: in order to create focus on the page, we have to create a focus! The cold eyes in the picture seem to be warning you not to get too close. This is the power of visual communication. Using only one picture and one element is more powerful than using a lot of characters. In a picture like the one on the left above, a group of people will only distract the reader. So when you're working on an image, mentally ask yourself: If I only had one element to use, which one should I choose?
Center Stage: The power of this layout comes from the center area. The diagonal element bisects the layout. The title is placed on the left (aligned with the outline of the face), while the other text is placed on the right. The background appears very plain, even slightly blurry, making the face the unquestionable first and only focus.
Vertical columnar area:
As mentioned earlier, the vertical columnar area elements of SPIRIT magazine are used throughout the magazine. This element is sometimes used for regional information and sometimes for layout decoration.
Vertical columns are generally used to differentiate between two types of information. In the picture below, it distinguishes the editor's comments on the left from some of the company's memorabilia on the right. The above layout is actually full of contrast: the contrast between wide and narrow, the contrast between black text and white text.
The horizontal area and vertical columnar area of the column text above can be seen throughout the magazine, but the vertical columnar area is moved left and right according to the actual needs of the layout.
change:
This vertical columnar line can be very flexible and useful in actual layout applications. It arranges pictures and text in a more orderly and distinctive manner:
