Company press – graphic design

Before the first issue of any company press title is published, first the layout is created. The layout should include as many detailed information about what a company magazine should look like as possible:

• typeface and font size,
• modular grid that defines the number and width of columns,
• palette of colours,
• unified navigation system,
• contents graphic design and other elements – these are the most important ones.

Designing a company press title often depends on the visual identification system of a given company. It doesn’t mean though that there is no room for creativity here. Visual identification systems often don’t take such a lively medium as a company magazine into account. Most often they specify what company documents or advertising materials and not a company magazine should look like. Then, creative thinking consists in transferring those content into the language that is in accordance with the press designing principles skilfully and in finding space for an individual trait, characteristic only for this company magazine.

There are also situations when a client doesn’t want the publication to be associated with the publisher and gives the designers creative freedom. Then there is no difference between designing company press (customer publishing) and designing press in general – what remains is a purely artistic challenge.

Diligence, developing certain unchangeable principles for a given publication and creative thinking not only in the layout designing phase are also extremely important. In general, we can say that the principle is that an excellent graphic designer can make a good magazine even if the layout is bad and boring and an amateur can destroy even the best layout when you entrust him with a particular issue of the magazine.

Thus, it is worthwhile entrusting professionals with both tasks.