Editorial Designer
The page maker
Design Careers · CAREERS
Editorial designers build the reading experience: magazines, newspapers, books, and reports, laid out on grids that hold a reader's attention across hundreds of pages. The discipline invented many of design's core tools — the grid, the masthead, the running head — and still demands the deepest typographic fluency.
It is a career for people who love type and long-form structure. Whether the pages are printed or scrolled, anyone designing content that must be read at length is doing editorial work.
Where they work
- Magazines and newspapers
- Book publishers
- Studios
- Digital publications
Skills
- Advanced typography and type detailing
- Grid systems and multi-page layout
- Mastheads, covers, and spreads
- Image sequencing and photo editing
- Long-form hierarchy and navigation
- Print production and imposition
Tools
- Adobe InDesign
- Photoshop
- Figma for digital
- Type tools
Typical projects
- Magazine spreads
- Book interiors and covers
- Annual reports
- Newsletters
Career path
- Junior Designer
- Designer
- Senior Designer
- Art Director or Design Director
Portfolio expectations
- Multi-page spreads
- Strong grids and type
- Covers
- Printed samples