What makes you pick up a particular magazine? What do you look at first? What keeps you turning the pages? In general, your answers probably involve some combinations of content (text) and design (images, typography, and other graphic elements). Magazine designers ask those same questions for every issue they work on; then they try to imagine the answers of their own particular audience-their slice of the magazine market.

At Rolling Stone, designers work in conjunction with the art director, editors, and photo editors to add a “visual voice” to the text. They think carefully about their audience and use a variety of images and typefaces to keep readers interested. “We try to pull the reader in with unique and lively opening pages and follow through with turnpages that have a good balance of photos and pullquotes to keep the reader interested,” says deputy art director Gail Anderson. Designers also select typefaces that suggest the appropriate mood for each story.

The designers work on their features from conception to execution, consulting with editors to help determine the amount of space that each story needs. They also work with the copy and production departments on text changes, letterspacing, type, and the sizing of art. At the beginning of the two-week cycle, designers start with printouts of feature stories. They select photographs and design a headline. Over the course of the next two to three days, they design the layouts. At the same time, each Rolling Stone designer is responsible for one or more of the magazine's departments and lays out those pages as well. Eventually both editors and designers sign off on various stages of the production process and examine final proofs.

Anderson is excited about how the new technology has changed the role of magazine designers. “We now have the freedom to set and design type ourselves, to experiment with color and see the results instantly, and to work in what feels like 3-D. The designer's role has certainly expanded, and I think it is taken more seriously than it was even a few years ago.” Magazine designers should enjoy working with both type and images, be attuned to content concerns and able to work well with editors, have technological expertise, and be able to tolerate tight deadlines.