Check out these inspiring magazine layouts. In the discussion page, bullet point what strong design features they have in common.
Think of color palette, space, alignment, hierarchy (in typography and illustrations), repeating shapes, repeating techniques, and other design tricks you find in common.
The magazine layouts I reviewed were here: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/18858892161638370/
and here: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/372672937898899896/
What I liked about these (and the other templates) was the balance between images and text. Both have images in diverse areas of the page, and framed in different shapes–diagonal, circles, hexagons, etc. The text accompanies the images in a flow that does not distract or overwhelm so you can appreciate both. In other words, seeing where you should start reading wasn’t difficult, and following the flow of the images was not difficult. Both have one significant color pattern to balance the black and white.
– In some of the magazine layouts the images bleed off the grid and margins
-A lot of them use basic shapes to highlight important parts of the article/spread; circles, squares, rectangles etc.
– The type stays in its area of the grid
– Subheaders are used in most of the layouts to break up text and make it easier on the reader, while still highlighting certain ideas
-Images bleeding out of the margins
-A sense of unity between pages by having the same color/concept all across
-Strong, bold single letter headers
Consistency throughout the entire magazine.
Visual elements and body copy play well together, by overlapping each other.
There is a consistent use of ruled shapes, such as rectangles and triangles. There seems to be a big use of eye catching bright colors. The colors are generally bright as they seem to avoid dark colors, outside of black and grey.