Avoidable Missteps: Design Choices That Are Holding Back Your Magazine

Good design is not subjective. Every design choice should serve a strategic function in a well-structured magazine: guiding readers through content, commanding the attention of skimming and scanning readers, motivating readers to take action based upon your content, etc.

But sometimes, designers make choices that undermine positive strategic outcomes. Usually, these poor choices are predicated on a simple failure to assess content from the reader’s perspective. Other times, it’s just sheer laziness.

Here are the top three design mistakes that I see over and over again:

1. Drop shadows. The drop shadow has its place, but the automated drop shadow effect in most design software has an extremely limited function: to create the illusion that a flat item is floating just over the page. Unfortunately, far too many designers reach for the drop shadow effect any time there is a desire to create the illusion of depth. Too often, the effect achieves the exact opposite.

For example, consider the apple. Isolated on a page, a piece of fruit offers a welcome burst of color. Even better, it offers an opportunity to introduce a sense of three-dimensional space on a flat surface. But too many designers whiff this pitch by applying a simple drop shadow, like this:

The placement of the shadow evenly behind the apple doesn’t create a sense of depth. Rather, it flattens the round apple into a paper cut-out. Rounded objects simply don’t cast flat shadows against a flat surface. Instead, the designer should do this:

Adding a realistic cast shadow under the apple achieves all our goals. We get a nice shot of saturated color, the apple looks more convincing, and we introduce a logical sense of depth to the page.

2. Drop caps. Again, drop caps can be useful tools in opening an article or defining a new section within an article. But the bare minimum number of lines to which a drop cap should be applied is three, not two.

Consider the following three examples:

The drop caps that precede three and four lines simply look more intentional than the drop cap preceding two lines. That one looks like a mistake. As an opening design element (placed at the start of an article), it lacks drama. As an interrupting design element (placed at the start of a new section within an article), it’s too easy to pass over. The purpose of a drop cap within a column of text is to a) engage with readers who may be scanning their way through the content; and b) provide a progress marker to readers who are consuming every word. Both types of readers deserve a design element that demonstrates a clear intention.

And while we’re on the subject, designers who use a drop cap as a major design element in a layout — often as the chief typographic element on an opening page — should be very careful about interfering with readability. Unless the first word of the article happens to be “A” or “I,” the designer is deliberately divorcing the first letter from the first word. Sometimes, it works. S

ometimes, it doesn’t.

3. Paragraph indent + space after. There are two accepted typographic styles for indicating the beginning of a new paragraph: the first-line indent OR the space after the preceding paragraph. All readers are accustomed to seeing these methods deployed separately; there is no reason to use both styles together, including for the vision-impaired.

What’s the harm? The over-signaling of the start of a new paragraph tells readers one thing: The magazine staff doesn’t trust them to navigate the article. A designer wouldn’t use a drop cap on every single paragraph, nor a bold intro, nor a subhead. They would impede readers’ progress, rather than aid it, and the indent + space accomplishes very nearly the same thing.

One more thing: Please don’t indent the paragraph that follows an unindented subhead. By indenting it, you’re creating a jarring white space at the beginning of a line of text. The column no longer looks clean and professional.

If your magazine is guilty of any of these errors, there’s no need to panic. That’s the beauty of a magazine: You can fix the problem for the next issue. In all likelihood, your readers will not make conscious notes of your changes. But they will enjoy an improved reading experience, even if they can’t say exactly why. And that’s always the chief goal of good magazine design.

If you suspect your magazine is suffering from these, or similar, design flaws, let Quarto Creative perform a complimentary audit of your publication. We’ll look for both the low-hanging fruit that can be easily addressed but also the structural shortcomings that might not be obvious. There’s no obligation; we just want every magazine to perform at its highest level. Let’s start a conversation at contact@quartocreative.com.