Pick up a good magazine about architecture or fashion and look closely at how a single page is laid out. Plenty of empty space, one strong headline, a few lines of text set in an even column and a photo that has room to breathe. Nothing jostles for attention, yet the whole thing looks expensive. That is editorial style - and you can carry it over to company materials.
Editorial is not a specific template or a trendy filter, but a way of thinking about layout. Instead of cramming everything onto a page at once, you lead the reader's eye calmly from headline to text. In this post we show how to design flyers, brochures and other materials so they look like a page from a proper publication rather than an overloaded advert.
- Editorial style is built on breathing room - wide margins and empty space that organises the content.
- The foundation is the grid: columns and baselines you align text and photos to.
- Typography takes the lead - a clear hierarchy of headline, introduction and body text.
- Photos are chosen for quality and given space, instead of filling every free corner.
- It works in brochures, folders and catalogues, but also in a simple flyer or a company folder.
What editorial style really is
The name comes from magazine design, that is from editorial pages. Editorial is an approach in which content matters more than ornaments, and the layout is there to serve it rather than cover it up. Instead of loud frames, gradients and ten fonts, you get calm, order and the impression that someone actually thought this through.
In practice you recognise editorial by a few traits. There is plenty of air around the text. There is a clear difference between headline and body. Photos are large and of good quality, not glued on by force. Colours are few, but used consistently. It is a style that works especially well where you want the brand to look mature and self-assured.
The foundation: grid and breathing room
The secret of magazine elegance does not lie in expensive photos, but in the invisible grid underneath. A grid is a layout of columns and lines you align all elements to. Thanks to it, texts begin in the same places, photos share edges, and the whole thing feels ordered, even if the reader cannot say why.
Margins and white space
The most common mistake in company materials is a fear of empty space. It seems that since you paid for the print, you should fill every centimetre. Editorial does the opposite - it deliberately leaves wide margins and gaps between blocks. That empty space is not wasted. It is what lets the headline ring out and tells the eye where to rest. The more premium the effect should be, the more breathing room is worth leaving.
Before you add another element to the design, try taking something away. Remove an unnecessary frame, cut the text by a sentence, enlarge the margin. Editorial rarely suffers from a shortage of content - it almost always gains when you subtract what is not essential.
Typography guides the eye
In editorial style it is typography, not graphics, that does the heavy lifting. Well-set text is an ornament in itself. The key is a clear hierarchy - the reader should know at a glance what is the title, what is the introduction and what is the main text.
- Headline - large, clear, ideally in one strong typeface. It stops the eye and announces the topic.
- Lead, that is the introduction - a few sentences in a slightly larger font than the rest, drawing you into reading on.
- Body text - a calm, highly readable typeface in an even column, with the right spacing between lines.
- Captions and details - smaller, often in a different colour or italics, to set them apart from the main text.
You do not need many fonts. Two typefaces - one for headlines, one for body - are quite enough. The whole game is about sizes, spacing and weight. If you want to go deeper into choosing typefaces, take a look at our post on whether minimalism or rich graphics works better - editorial is close to the former philosophy.
Photos with class, not by chance
Magazines live on photos, but they follow a simple rule: better one good photo than five random ones. In editorial, photography gets space. Sometimes it takes up half a page or the whole one, with a small caption in the corner. It does not fight the text for room - it works with it.
When choosing photos for company materials, go for a consistent style: similar framing, close colour tones, the same atmosphere. A few photos in one convention look far better than a mix of shots in different moods. Take care of file quality too - for print you need a suitably high resolution, otherwise even the loveliest photo will blur on paper. If you want to be sure your materials are print-ready, our file preparation page will help.
Where editorial works best
This style fits wherever you have a bit more room and want to build an impression of quality. Not every material has to shout - sometimes a quiet, elegant layout says more about a brand than a garish banner. Editorial suits a carrier that offers several spreads at once - prestige folded flyers come with a choice of 17 decorative papers, and the print always covers both sides of the sheet.
- Brochures and folders - a multi-page format is the natural home of editorial. Here the value of a grid and consistent typography really shows in brochures.
- Premium flyers - even on a single sheet you can build an editorial mood through breathing room and a strong headline. See how it looks in flyers.
- Company folders - an editorial-style cover instantly sets the level of the whole presentation. Take a look at company folders.
- Catalogues and lookbooks - if you present products, editorial lets you show them with class, without a flood of information.
Editorial is not only the form of a single material. It is also part of a larger whole. A consistent style across all prints builds brand recognition. If you want to pull this into a system, our post on how to create a consistent visual identity on a small budget will come in handy.
How to design an editorial material step by step
If you are starting from scratch, it is worth working in order, rather than throwing elements onto the page and seeing what comes out. The sequence below helps keep things tidy from the very beginning.
- Set the grid - decide how many columns you work on and how wide the margins will be. This is the skeleton of the whole thing.
- Place the headline and lead - plan where the title and introduction go. They guide the eye first.
- Add the photos - choose one strong main photo and perhaps a few supporting ones, all in one style.
- Pour in the text - lay out the copy in columns according to the grid, keeping even spacing and readability.
- Subtract the excess - at the end review the whole thing and remove what gets in the way. Editorial gains from restraint.
Editorial style is proof that elegance comes from order, not from the number of ornaments. Leave your materials room to breathe, take care of clear typography and consistent photos, and your company prints will start to look like pages from a good magazine. If you want to talk through a specific project, feel free to write to us via our contact page - we will suggest how to bring that mood onto paper.
