Crystal-clear communication; a graphic 'before and after' shows why effective communication depends on a strong partnership of design and editorial

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Dec, 1985 by Jan V. White

Editors and designers, therefore, must learn to see their product as a totality. They must handle its inner details as parts of a whole. Only when they subordinate individual elements to the overall needs of the product will they be able to assemble it so as to make the most of every opportunity. The best publications do exactly that. That is the subtle difference between them and their competition.

This "Before-and-After" of a hypothetical story illustrates the need to consider the raw material in both verbal and visual form, and develop a presentation that grows out of that meld.

The "Before" has all the information, but the reader has to dig it out. The "After" shows how the material has been manifuplated to lead the reader straight to what is essential. Simplification and the use of size to signal importance are the tricks used. But these graphic techniques depend completely on understanding the meaning of the story. That's why you have to read the callouts here. They analyze the material and are the basis for the rationale the editor and designer must evolve to produce a clearer, more communicative product.

Pages 98-99 show how an editor and art director have reworked a page.

True: This is undoubltedly manipulation. But it is not cheating. It is the result of clearer analysis, more incisive editing, and the consequently cunning placement of elements.

It is the only reliable technique to improve the editorial product because it is based on the substance of the information instead of on subjective, cosmetic prettification or "page arrangement done that way because I like it." The text outlines why it is necessary and how to achieve it.