Wired is a magazine that is printed monthly with roughly 125 pages on standard magazine size paper. I think they decided to go with this because there is constantly new movements in technology and business, which is what the magazine focuses on. There will constantly be content that they are able to write about each month. I think 125 pages seems like a lot, but once you factor in all of the advertisements and the pages like the TOC and Masthead, it really isn’t too large of a magazine. And even though it is large, all of the content within seems equally as interesting with each turn of the page.
The grid looks to be 6 columns and 12 rows. I could be a little off, but they definitely have a larger number of columns and rows that is apparent through their design. Wired will utilize white space very well, and these guides help keep everything neat and tidy. It is obvious to me that the designers pay very close attention to detail and everything lines up in a very clean and crisp manner. The gutters between columns of type are fairly big. They are definitely larger than a pica apart. I think that this works very well with Wired because they have a lot of content and if they were to have the columns closer together it would be a more difficult read.
The way layout and space are used throughout the magazine is very strategic. With wide gutters, it creates more white space and makes the longer articles more easily readable. Often times there will be photos or blocks of color intruding on the type. I think this is a smart move because the solid colors never take away from the story or make it difficult to read. They provide kind of a break in the story for the reader to still be entertained by the sight of color as they are reading along. For the most part there is only one photo per page, and often it will bleed onto the page beside it. This is one of my favorite things to do with photos on a spread. It helps direct the reader onto the next page without creating too much of a break in their reading.
One example of white space that stuck out to me in this issue of Wired is an article on financial tech. There is an excellent use of white space throughout this article. It’s about 4 spreads long and the only colors used are red, white, and a lower opacity of the red for a soft pink color behind type. I think that the organization of information, with the use of side bars and illustrations made this article so much more interesting to look at. There is also a photo on each spread to add more variety of content. This article is a great example of how tedious the designers are about lining up the elements on the page in a very clean and satisfying way.
