Squarespace is intuitive, and you really don’t have to know web design to use it. Since a desktop has a more horizontal view than a mobile site, which is more vertical, Squarespace takes care of laying this out for you. Until it doesn’t.

Do you ever look at your favorite magazine on a stand at your local grocery store or bookstore and wonder what goes in to designing it? Have you ever seen that same magazine offered as a digital subscription and think that what you see in print is what you see on your screen?

In this creative studio, I believe that great design is all in how you lay it out. Any design that is laid out in a clear way will accomplish the goal of delivering the message, but I believe there are three things that have to work together in order for this to happen: typography, color, and the design aesthetic of the actual layout.

Ever think about the behind-the-scenes stuff that happens when putting a book together? It’s not just a Word document that gets sent to a publisher and then gets printed. For starters, the printers never even see a Word document. So, let’s talk about how that’s done.

Your background grid will give your publication continuity and uniformity. If you set it up correctly, your leading (the spacing between two lines of text) will be at the correct distance and your reader will thank you for that.

When laying out books or magazines, there is not one go-to format that you use in designing these. But the one thing that is consistent is the use of grids in the background.