What Makes A Magazine 3 / Jeremy Leslie

Words, images and design combine in a magazine to create a linguistic and visual tone that relates to and reflects the magazine’s readership. This tone is based on the broad vision of the creative team, but underlying it is a structure that starts and ends with lists.

A new issue is based around a list of content that continually develops as the issue comes together. Once pages are being created this list is expressed visually in the flat plan, a map of the issue listing the content page by page.

On the pages themselves, lists are a vital part of the modern magazine, and no more so than in the NY title List. This magazine consisted entirely of lists, as its contents page, left, shows. Written lists detailed supermodels’ day rates and pictorial lists provided visual histories of the game console.