The Art of the Layout

What makes the MAGNET design work? The designer used some classic principles to energize her two-page spreads: contrast, alignment, repetition, and proximity.

In the following section, we'll explore those principles in action on various well-designed magazine covers and articles. Once you've seen the examples, I invite you to reexamine the Tom Waits article and see how well the MAGNET designer implemented the ideas.

Contrast

Remember our discussion of negative space? The designer of the Tom Waits article created a strong contrast by using photographs that had large areas of empty space. Sometimes magazine pages are quite barren places—negative space can be crucial to a well-designed page. At other times, the designer will ...

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