Finding My Place in the Graphic Design Industry // Dazed Digital
The design industry is massive, and when I started unravelling this, I had realised that it’s a whole new world. It’s exciting, and there is so much to learn. When I began studying graphic design, I felt overwhelmed by this, and I struggled to keep up with my peers. I felt that everyone was already so much better than I was and that I needed to be better, but how?
I decided to take a step back and look at the big picture. I was never a quick learner, so why rush myself?
Learning the fundamentals
As Pablo Picasso once said, "learn the rules like a pro so that you can beak them like an artist". However, in graphic design, there are specific rules that you really shouldn't break—for example, the use of grids. Grids are the hidden architecture of print and editorial design. It creates a structure and holds everything together. Establishing a visual hierarchy is also a must! The use of size and colour emphasises one item over another and draws the reader's eye to a particular thing above others.
The use of alignment is also worth mentioning; this is something that I often forget about, and even after a few bollocking from my tutor, I still manage to miss this! So here's the trick, if your chosen alignment is left, then everything has to be on the left. The text, images, and if you're designing a website, the buttons should be on the left side to-. Yes! Even the buttons! The last rule that I'm going to mention on this blog is do not, and I can't emphasise this enough, DO NOT stretch your font! It rarely looks good, and designers spent so much time creating them, so who am I to ruin their craft?
I learned many more rules, and most of the time, I broke them without ever knowing what they were. Maybe one day I'll write a book about it.
Learning these rules made me discover my love for print and editorial design. So much so that I even wrote my dissertation about it. While doing my research, I was able to interview Dazed Digital's very own editor Anna Cafolla. I thought I would include it on this blog because it gave me a lot of insight into the editorial industry.
An Interview with Anna Cafolla editor of Dazed Digital
1. Question: Do you exclusively work in digital, or have you got any roots in print?
Answer: Dazed Media has been working towards having a more symbiotic relationship between print and digital, unifying our tone of voice, the issues and people we cover and platform, how print and digital content can complement each other. As digital editor at Dazed I liaise regularly with print – we brainstorm talent for each issue together, we plan how the print mag will be announced, published on digital, and pushed on our socials. I have a say on what’s covered in the print mag - we keep in mind what will perform in both print and digital, or how we would need to tweak/update content to do both. I contribute regularly to print editorial, and wrote the last issue’s cover story (Shygirl, A/W 2020). Examples of print-digi relationship: The Spring Summer 2020 issue of Dazed had Billie Eilish on the cover. It was teased on our Instagram with exclusive behind-the-scenes footage from set shot by covershoot photographer Harmony Korine. The digital extension included an exclusive Billie Poster from the print shoot if you signed up on digi. We always aim to do more digital ‘spin-off’ content too – eg. These photoshoots were from print, but we built them out on digital with the digital-only interview features as ‘lockdown diaries’. Dazed and Dazed Beauty have also done some digital-only covers, and we’ve done digital guest edits and mostly digital campaigns (eg. ‘Alone Together’ was a digital-first campaign in response to the pandemic, with one feature in the print mag).
In my own career outside of Dazed I work across both digital and print – both for the Guardian and Observer, Prospect, Teen Vogue, Crack, New Statesman etc. I have written several cover stories and features for print mags and papers. I’ve also contributed to video, podcasts, etc.
2. Question: What is the most valuable skill that you’ve learned while working for dazed digital?
Answer: I would say how to create an editorial package that works across print, digital, and social – you can have an incredible profile with an artist and it’ll not travel if you haven’t considered how it’s presented on the website, how you use your socials. That could mean picking a strong headline and the best angle to encourage eyes on the piece – this recent Debbie piece for example, is one of our top performing of the year and it’s only been up less than a week. I would say the headline and the quote I pulled here to lead with helped with engagement. It’s provocative, provokes conversation, it mentions big names like Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, side-by-side with an older legend and icon like Debbie is super engaging, surprising etc. Another example is the Frank Ocean piece – he’s an enigmatic character and notorious for being secretive and difficult to interview, so we pitched him being asked questions by famous friends, collaborators, people in the industry. It meant several fanbases engaged with the piece, Frank was more open than he’s been as he was more comfortable speaking to peers and friends, etc.
Another skill I’d say is how to cut through the churnalism and provide the most fresh and dynamic angle. It’s how to put what your audience needs and wants first. Rather than aggregate and churn out the same stories, we aim to be one step ahead (e.g our ‘Ask An Expert’ series takes something big that’s happening in the news cycle and provides expert voices giving context)
3. Question: If you have worked in print before, is there a skill that you've brought along with you to digital?
Answer: From print, you really have to think about how to make editorial that will engage and interest people beyond time constraints. We publish 4-6 times a year in print, so articles have to be a bit more evergreen. In print, I definitely learnt there how to hit deadlines that you absolutely could not miss because the printers needed the copy, production needed to do the design etc.
3. Question: Do you consider the reader’s experience when editing?
Answer: Absolutely the reader’s experience is at the forefront, from the angle and narrative form, to the headline and the design layout. There might be a Q+A interview in print with a ‘box out’ feature (e.g an interview with a musician, and a ‘box out’ that’s their top five music highlights or something). The box out might actually perform better on digital, as it’s more digestible and dynamic to read online than a longform interview.
4. Question: I was watching this interview with Tracey Ma visual editor of NY Times, and she talked about editorial packaging (the packaging triangle: superficial embroidery, making people feel something, and the third helping make sense of the world) I was wondering if you have a similar technique or do you think about these things too?
Answer: This is a gorgeous way to put it and I totally agree – funny I didn’t read this part before I said the above answer about editorial packaging, ha! Tracey puts it much better than I do. I think you can see this triangle play out with DD campaigns like “End of the Decade” and “Alone Together” and the Charli XCX guest edit. All of them have their own visual identity – consulted on with our in-house design team – and multi-platform elements (there’s ‘hero’ editorial features eg. the big Charli XCX profile, there’s video and social-only content, there’s more interactive features like the pop quiz and the decade timeline).
5. Question: Is there a memorable story that you can think of that you remember using emotive design? When it wasn't really that informative, but it made people feel like they are part of something?
Answer: I’d say our End of the Decade timeline – it’s really interactive and visualises what was a chaotic, expansive decade in society, politics, culture. As part of our end of the decade campaign we asked people questions on our socials and spotlighted their answers on our Instagram stories. As part of the “Alone Together” series we had readers contribute short video messages too – a huge part of that campaign was speaking and engaging with our audience, and creating a sense of community, at the height of the pandemic. My editorial explains it. We also do a fun quiz format.
5. Question: Do you think empathy is important when it comes to the readers' experience? If so, why?
Answer: I am most definitely empathetic to the reader. I have to consider what they will need and want from us as a youth culture publisher - esp during the pandemic, how could we make people feel listened to, entertained, informed. As an editor working at a time when the media is so murky, conspiracy and anger is so ride on social media I have to think whether we’re stoking disinformation online in a time of political and social polarisation by platforming a story that will just anger or confuse people. We do a lot of ‘how to’ and ‘ask an expert’ format stories because we want to educate and engage our young, Gen Z audience, many of whom are in the creative industries. We also run Dazed Academy.
6. Question: Have you ever made an editorial approach which puts the readers' engagement first? For example a poll or a voting system? Do you think it is important to give your reader's an interactive experience? If so, why?
Answer: I think reader engagement is intrinsic to a lot of what we publish on DD. I used the quiz format as an example above too, but also the end of decade timeline (sorry I’m repeating myself!)
I think we unfortunately live in a time of declining attention, when publishers are vying for eyes in an attention economy. TikTok 15-second attention spans, 280 character Tweets, Instagram Explore page refreshing. I don’t think this means backsliding into churnalism or clickbait ever. It’s not mutually exclusive to create engaging editorial and stories with longevity.
7. Question: And lastly, do you think digital magazines has a lot more advantage than print overall?
Answer: I truly think both can live in harmony, and should! Print is a living artefact of our time. With Dazed Digital and as a digital editor, I aim for our daily homepage to reflect the day – that it’s living and dynamic, responsible and informative to that moment. I think the parameters of digital are really expanding and it’s an exciting time to be a digital native – we can do really ambitious things, like our moving digital covers like our Dazed Beauty Witch Week set. Digital mags can be much more responsive to the zeitgeist. I think at present, it’s in the digital sphere that we see the most exciting, diverse, challenging voices - that doesn’t even mean in digital magazines, it’s in fresher mediums like podcasting, Patreon, newsletters (this is worth a read btw) like that on Substack (a personal fave).
Editorial design is only a piece of graphic design. Still, it definitely impacted how I view it and, most importantly, how I design. In the next couple of blogs, I will be looking into my other interests and join me on this journey where I find where I belong within the industry.
