Ruth Ansel compares designing a magazine to designing a face, noting that while no two are alike, they share the same basic structure of eyes, nose, and mouth. Similarly, magazines all contain the same essential ingredients like fashion, beauty, and home content. To be successful, a designer must constantly reinvent the relationships between these elements, pay attention to the surrounding context and trends, and feature newly creative voices. By doing this, the design will be good and have lasting impact.

1. Ruth Ansel

11. “Designing a magazine is a little like
designing a face. No two faces are alike but
each has the same essential structure—two
eyes, a nose, and a mouth. Each
magazine, even each advertising
campaign, pretty much has the same
ingredients. Whether it’s fashion, beauty and
accessories, or home, architecture, and
lifestyle, what you must do is constantly
rearrange and reinvent the
relationships, pay attention to the content
and context, pay attention to the time you
live in, pay attention to what is newly
creative and who is creating it. If you do that
it will work and live on as good design.”
— Ruth Ansel