When looking at the cover of Wired Magazine, it is obvious that they use this space to identify the overall theme of the issue, as well as using coverlines to advertise about six of the stories the reader can find inside. In this issue, the theme is “Fashion Goes Tech” and that is prominent on the front, going across the photo. The photo is of a woman looking straight at the camera and dressed in a piece of fashion that has merged with tech. The coverlines are neatly placed on the top left, top right, and bottom right of the cover. The type is center aligned, which personally isn’t my favorite, but it works with this cover. The nameplate changes color from issue to issue, but the typeface remains the same. Because Wired is known for their wild color use, there is still a consistency between issues.
Opening up the magazine, the reader can find a couple ads at the beginning, and then the table of contents immediately after. The table of contents is very clean and well organized. The TOC includes the page number, department, article title, and a short description underneath. The information is separated by the use of different weights, with the title and page number as the heaviest, and the department and synopsis in a lighter weight. There is a photo placed in the bottom right corner to take up space and then the information is placed around. I think this is a great, clean, simple, easy to read design. It is clear that they take their time to line things up correctly. I think they could possibly incorporate more color if they wanted to because the magazine is known for their crazy colors, but other than that I love the simple and clean layout.
Moving forward into the magazine, it becomes obvious that Wired doesn’t really use page numbers. I saw page numbers on only a few pages, but for the most part the pages were separated by department. I found this to be really confusing and hard to know where you are at in the magazine. Especially with such a large magazine, not numbering pages can make it difficult for the reader to find stories, especially when they are numbered in the table of contents. Overall, I think Wired is very consistent with their design. It is a little wild, but I think that’s also their brand and it makes for an exciting magazine.
The different departments within Wired are Start (front of book), Event, Gear, WS Special, and Feature.You see these departments listed in the TOC and then instead of page numbers, these departments are listed on the side of the page, in the center. I really like this placement for the folio, but I think it can easily get lost in the content on the page.
