Design Takes - March 2025
I regularly receive via mail plenty gardening magazines, the Squires is one of my favourite but their brochure can do a little work around. They send it every quarter of the year and this months issue, just arrived last week, so I decided to include it in this months Design Takes.
I am aware that the magazine is a free issue and therefore fewer resources are allocated to its production. However, with minimal effort and the use of a simple grid, the cover could be made more visually appealing without adding significant workload.
Certainly, The Squires Garden Centres are contracting another company to design, print, and distribute these issues, along with other publications. It’s clear that templates and structured layouts are being used across different issues. While this particular template is customised for Squires, I’ve noticed similar layouts being applied to other publications, with only the content varying.
The main issue with this cover lies not only in the layout but also in the typography choices. While it seems to use just two fonts—a serif and a sans-serif—the lack of strong contrast in their weights and sizes makes the design feel unstructured.
Considering that this is a free issue produced under tight deadlines, implementing a fixed grid would be the most effective solution, as is standard in publishing. In the printing industry, even the most stylish fashion magazines that appear "airy" or loosely arranged are actually built on a structured grid. This approach ensures a good use of space, keeps content well-organised, and ultimately helps control production costs by streamlining the number of pages needed.
Heres how I would see this:
A well-structured design naturally guides the reader’s eye and enhances readability. I kept the type choices as close as possible to the original, but I replaced the heavier weights with a hand-style font to create a more relaxed and inviting feel.
For the main title section, I very much considered a custom lettering approach but ultimately decided to refine the existing type layout instead. I made minimal adjustments to the top portion of the cover, focusing on improving it within the same resources. While this area could certainly be refreshed and adapted, maintaining a budget-friendly solution was one of the main considerations.
Like many other materials used in these sessions, this layout could incorporate much more design variety. However, my main focus here is on the simplest and most efficient solutions—demonstrating how to make the most of the resources available.
One key takeaway: when designing or brainstorming for a specific product, always ask yourself (or your audience), How will this be used? This question is invaluable in guiding design decisions and effectively managing time.
I'd love to hear your thoughts—what do you think of this analysis and the new design approach?
If you made it this far in this article, I very much thank you and congratulations, you’ve learned something, even if maybe it was just out of curiosity. :)
While the focus is more on analysis than correction, these monthly sessions are all about exploring what’s out there, brainstorming, understand and why not, make it better.
If there’s something you’d like me to review for these sessions, feel free to send me an email! I’d be happy to take a look and include it in an upcoming article.