How to Spend It Magazine - Essay Example

?Publication designs Publication design The publication design for any magazine depends highly on the target audience, editorial areas of interest and place/ country. There is a great difference between the design publication and graphic design because publication design focuses on the primacy of the content while graphic design is all about the presentation of the publication. The magazine “How to Spend it” is a part of The Financial Times newspaper. It has been part of this paper for over forty years. This magazine was initially a page in the newspaper, and then later on it expanded into being a magazine in 1994. The magazine is well known worldwide as a luxury magazine. Some of the columns in this magazine include Aesthete, Chronicles of a Spa Junkie, Diary of a Somebody, Finders Keepers, The Haute Seat, The Smart Money, just to mention a few. This magazine has been successful because the content is most familiar to its readers. It is easily relatable to the readers of the columns. This is important because it portrays the content as natural as it can be. It is not the word count that matters in this case but the depth of what has been written that significantly impacts the readers. There is a difference between editorial designs from other designs and that is mostly about the content. The “How to Spend it” magazine is specifically for luxury lifestyle, the editors are focused on making content known to the readers. In retrospect, for effective publication it was vital that the designer uses the editorial mission in order to communicate the designs in the magazine. This has been well executed; a good example is in the column Technopolis, by Jonathan Margolis, the designs of the Huria bone conductor headphones have been explained in depth to appeal to the reader to read more about the headphones. The headphones intent was for one to listen to music without completely shutting themselves out completely from the world. The descriptions about headphones were accompanied by pictures. The images went a long way into explaining or describing the product. We will not completely ignore the fact that the visuals add a great aspect to the good read from which we derive the content, but it is important to note that the marriage between visuals and content play a much greater role in publication. The importance of all this is to ensure even if the reader is not technology survy at least they will understand the content in the magazine. The publication designs have in so many ways influenced what people think about. They set the tone and mood in our various cultures in the world. Another example can be derived from The Van der postings which are an effortless display of luxury products; they are considered a norm and have attempted to attract many into purchasing the products highlighted in the posts. This therefore goes a long way into influencing the culture of a people. This kind of publication design is what makes this magazine to last for long. It is what gives it the staying power (Baines 2002). Marketing communications are nothing compared to design publication because of the depth that design publications portray. They are much richer in communication as they tell a story. In the event that these designs are done ingeniously and creatively by involving a designer, photographer, editor and writer it makes the whole look so smart. Additionally, it has a multiplier effect, whereby the design appears to be more viral and touches everything while making them appear more solid. Garfield (2011) has described fonts in his book to have meanings and create certain impressions. He mentions that fonts today seem to be everywhere and they affect the way one thinks of them in a book, magazine, website or paper. In “How to Spend it” magazine the typography has been used to describe different content that is being publicized. For instance, in Simon de Burton’s of “How to Spend it” (2012) column on “Charging ahead” the font used to describe the topic of the column was in bold and was in the upper case. Needless to say, the topic of discussion was focusing on a very powerful car – a first long distance electric car; Tesla. Furthermore, the image of the car was placed centrally to attract more attention of the readers on the powerful car that was not only electric but also one that would go for long distances without running out of juice. Well, it is clear that the use of certain font types attracts certain impressions. In this case the use of uppercase was to bring emphasis towards the topic in discussion. Another good example of how font can affect how we think of what has been written or the types in italic text, is in The Captains Table column it is used in the title for Christopher Evans’s dining bolt holes by John Stimpfig. The italics in the title have been used just so they could bring an impression of the scientist or rather to place emphasis to fact that he is a scientist. The editor also used the quotation marks to show the beginning and the ending of the piece. In the column From the Desk till dawn, Atlas Mountain Trek by Charlie Norton the dates and time that had been used in the publication of a story had the intent of making it appear as real and appeal to readers to read on about the story on mountaineering. Additionally, there are is a capture statement, which has been highlighted boldly in the next page (Garfield 2011). The intention of that typeset used is to place emphasis on how the mountaineers still put a steady pace despite the fact that they had just fed on nuts and dates. Some column had some illustrations done in white and black. The intention was to show contrast especially in the watches column illustrating Jerome watches. Moreover, the typeface used indicates the weight or quality of the watches in discussed in the column (Baines 2002). In spite the fact that publication designs are powerful and very influential magazines were primarily designed to be read. The designers have nothing to say about what has to be written. What has to be considered though is that the designer has to stay relevant to time in their content. That way the publication designs will be up to date and will sell and appeal to its audience (Baines 2002). Finally, it is important to note that the publication design in “How to Spend it” is one of a kind. The editorial content is rich and up to date with all the luxurious things that they talk about in their columns. The publication of the magazine is in fact themed nine times in the thirty times that the magazine appears, which definitely gives it an edge above many magazines. References Baines, P. and Andrew H. (2002). Type & Typography. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications. Garfield, S. (2011), Just My Type: A Book about Fonts. NY, NY: Gotham. Read More