According to a famous saying, “Don’t’ judge a book by its cover.” Yet, the consumers’ decision to buy a fashion magazines are often largely based upon the cover. Their tendency to look at an editorial spread depends on whether they are visually attracted to the aesthetics of the pages. Consumerism is all about marketing, and marketing is all about effectively persuading customers to buy a certain product. When customers are selecting a product, especially a fashion product, they look at the design more than anything else such as functionality or cost.
I myself am a journalist who enjoys reading and writing articles. But as a visual-oriented person, I often am attracted to the design more than the words. Indeed, the articles themselves have a lot of fruitful content. But to me, a picture is worth a thousand words. I always seek to incorporate visuals that have inspired me into my own designs. At school, I have actively participated in journalistic activities such as Tiger Times, the official school press, and Seoulite, the official press for Seoul Model United Nations Conference, as the photographer and graphics editor. My experiences in taking and selecting photos, creating infographics, and overseeing all graphical elements of the paper have reinforced interest in pursuing a career in magazine and editorial design.
Editorial designers work on the layout and visual aesthetics of newspapers, magazines, online publications and other media. When flipping through magazines, I have been inspired by the graphic designer’s creative use of typography, color, movement, space and imagery to design aesthetically crafted and visually literate layouts. Thus, I chose to study graphic design because I aspire to become an editorial designer who can think and solve visual problems creatively.
