I enjoyed watching this Royal College of Art webinar about editorial design in “the post-reading era.” Jeremy Leslie (of magCulture), Astrid Stavro, and Adrian Shaughnessy shared their experiences and observations in a conversation and then answered viewers’ questions.

They gave examples of their favourite books and magazines. If you watch the video, look out for the Anne Frank book. Its designer used a clever layout to represent the teenager’s experience of hiding from the Nazis.

They also spoke about people turning to beautifully designed and fact-checked printed objects as a kind of escape from AI products.

I was particularly struck by one speaker’s story about design choices that didn’t do justice to a writer’s words. It reinforced that the visual appearance of a page can make or break the reader’s experience.

I’m not an editorial designer myself. I’m an admirer, interested in editorial design from an art historical point of view. However, watching this talk did encourage me to buy a couple of books about magazine making. I will try making my own magazine, just to see what it feels like.