Editorial Design

Institution: [Institution Name]
Instructors: Alper Yıldırım
Semester: 1

Course Brief

Editorial design is the construction of reading experiences. It determines how information is ordered, paced, interrupted, layered, and given a distinct voice through visual form.

Across four progressively expansive projects, students investigate the anatomy of the page, editorial rhythm, physical publication structures, non-linear digital narratives, and independent publishing. The course introduces grids, typographic hierarchy, visual density, sequencing, navigation, material experimentation, and the relationship between editorial form and content.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

  • Analyse editorial layouts through hierarchy, rhythm, density, and spatial organisation.

  • Apply grid systems, typographic logic, and negative space to create coherent reading environments.

  • Organise information across sequential, layered, and non-linear publication formats.

  • Design printed and digital editorial experiences in which form responds meaningfully to content.

  • Use navigation, pacing, and interaction as editorial tools.

  • Develop an independent editorial voice through a fully authored publication.

Projects

Project 01

Editorial Typography Without Words

Students create an editorial spread using only visual fragments extracted from historical engravings. No letters, words, or numerals are permitted.

Lines, textures, ornaments, figures, and decorative details are reinterpreted as editorial components such as body text, headlines, captions, folios, images, and navigational elements. By constructing a convincing page without language, students examine the underlying visual mechanics of hierarchy, grid, alignment, typographic texture, and negative space.

Selected Student Works

[Image gallery]

Project 02

The Variable Page

Students design a printed booklet on a contemporary subject containing multiple layers of information. The publication incorporates variations in page size, transparency, folding, insertion, cropping, or density to establish hierarchy and editorial rhythm.

The project approaches the publication as a temporal and physical experience. Students determine what the reader encounters first, what remains secondary, and how information is gradually revealed through sequencing, material choices, and page structure.

Selected Student Works

[Image gallery]

Project 03

Hyper Narrative

Students design an interactive e-publication in Figma around a subject that benefits from non-linear exploration. Readers navigate the publication by following links, opening layers, choosing different routes, or interacting with connected fragments of information.

The project investigates how interaction can function as an editorial tool. Students develop relationships between the main narrative, optional content, navigational logic, motion, and the reader’s degree of freedom.

Selected Student Works

[Image gallery]

Project 04

Independent Zine Design

Students develop an independent zine with complete freedom over its subject, tone, structure, materials, and format. The publication may be critical, poetic, documentary, satirical, archival, personal, fragmented, or speculative.

Students take responsibility for the full editorial process, including research, content selection, editing, sequencing, typography, imagery, materials, and production. Every formal decision must emerge from the publication’s subject, intended readership, and editorial position.

Selected Student Works

[Image gallery]