CIO: Esquire TOC, Dairy Today

This week on Designing Magazines, Jandos Rothstein describes the new layout of the Esquire's TOC. Rothstein had mentioned before that TOCs are usually looked over when it comes to producing a magazine. The fact that Esquire is taking out so much time to design the TOC is rare. I think they did a good job. They get out of the common, formatted style and add their own twist to it.




I think putting them into a rectangular grid definitely makes it look pleasing to the eye. I think that it's even more effective since they crop each of the photos and place them next to corresponding page, which has been viewed a problem for many readers since they find it difficult trying to find the right page for a certain photo or summary. I also think it was good to have the lines separate the summaries with lines.

With Esquire's new TOC, I don't think that they will attract more readers. It seems like you would only like if you knew a little bit about journalism. But I don't really like it. If I wasn't a journalism student, I think that I would get lost as an average consumer. It looks like the feature layout before it goes to print. Ick.The new TOC would make me put the magazine down and walk away. I would've expected better from them. I mean that's fine for around the office where it can be appreciated but I don't think people will enjoy it as much now as the old TOC's pictured above. Maybe it's just something that I will have to become accustomed to.

I can't wait to see if they keep changing things inside of the magazine. It's amazing how much typography can change a spread.

Speaking of typographical changes, Dairy Today has made changes to their cover to try to give their publication a new look since they rank third out of three dairy magazines in the nation.

Before:



After:




I think the first cover was a bit text heavy and a bit old fashioned. Yet the second cover looks very design forward. The typography makes all the difference on the cover. They actually start putting more of an emphasis on the dairy rather than the today. I think that was good move. The cover looks more colorful and funnier with just a single cow on the cover. And the selective colored background makes the image pop. I think now I would actually pick it up just for the cover. As the semester progresses, I'm starting to like when a publication doesn't have many sell lines on the front. Tighter sell lines with page numbers and hierarchy sell line covers seem to be the most visually appealing. I think is definitely something that I will start using more often in my designs.