How to design a magazine cover Adobe
Intro
After designing over 100 magazine
covers for a variety of creative and big brand publications, graphic
designer Johann Chan has learned that the best way to make printed
publication stand out is to use special finishes artfully – adding much
to the overall effect of a cover, from luxury to vibrancy to pure
beauty.
Here he takes you through his creative process and shows how to
design a magazine cover, add Pantone colours and spot UV varnishes.
Time to complete
2 hours
Software needed
InDesign CS5 or later
Step 1
Open InDesign. Set your document size
to A4 (210 x 250mm) and uncheck Facing pages to ensure you’re designing
on a singular page, rather than a spread.
Step 2
We'll start designing the cover with
the masthead. Choose a typeface for your magazine’s masthead. The
magazine I’m creating here – Ignite – is a lifestyle title, so I’ve
chosen a simple, elegant font.
Now, create your masthead.
When working with layered artworks, I find it best to save each layer as a separate file. You can work with layered artworks within InDesign, but I find it easiest to use separate files for fitting coverlines and tweaking positions later.
Here I’ve place the model overlapping the masthead for a more dynamic effect.
The most visible – and arguably important – part of a magazine cover is the top left. This is because magazines are generally stacked either vertically (called waterfalling) or horizontally (curtain racking). Whether your magazine is on the newsstand or on stands at exhibitions, if you want to maximise your chance of catching a potential reader’s attention, this is the area to concentrate on.
This is the most conventional area to put your main coverline – which is what I’ve done
To double check your coverline is now in Pantone, open you separations preview window. Go to Window>Output>Separations Preview, and click on the visibility icons of each plate to check which object has which colour assigned. If all your steps have been correct, if only the Pantone plate is visible, the only graphic visible will be the coverline.
Now create a spot varnish plate for your model and masthead. A spot varnish is a nice way to give your cover some extra depth and a subtle tactile finish. To create a spot varnish plate which lets your printer know which areas you'd like varnished. Create a new page by clicking on the flyout menu on your Pages panel and selecting Insert Page.
Select the items you want to be spot varnished. Copy from the first page, and then paste in place on the second page, using Edit > Paste in Place then colour these in 100 percent black. And now you have a separate page with objects coloured in black which you want varnished.
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