Winter 2025
Change the pace
Editorial Design
By Cath Caldwell Designed by TwoSheds Laurence King, £30
Here at Eye towers we are big fans of Cath Caldwell’s book Editorial Design (Laurence King, £30, designed by TwoSheds) and that is not just because we are featured in it writes Simon Esterson. The third edition has just appeared with new chapters (on independent magazines and the relationship between a publication’s print and digital content) and it continues to provide a contemporary perspective on the shifting landscape of design for magazines and newspapers.
Now that design education has become ‘increasingly self-directed’, as Caldwell says in her introduction, this book is aimed principally at students. But with its range of examples and voices, this is an edition that anybody who designs, edits or publishes should read. Even if you are not as committed to print as the Eye team, there are good discussions here about magazines as branding projects, and the changing shape of online publishing.
Caldwell has lived her subject and made a book with the authority of that experience, ranging from the practical (working with grids and templates) to the inspirational (Bobby C. Martin Jr’s Martin Luther King special edition of The Atlantic). I first met Caldwell when she worked in the art department of Condé Nast Traveller with editor Harry Evans in New York – when NYC was the place to be if you wanted to work in magazines. Returning to London, she became design director of Elle before focusing on teaching design and journalism at Central Saint Martins.
The book’s running text is paralleled by a rich selection of covers and spreads with detailed captions and insightful interviews with leading figures in publishing. Among them are creative director Gail Bichler of The New York Times Magazine (above, see Eye 96), Richard Turley (above, see Eye 100) and Pentagram’s Matt Willey.

Turley’s advises young designers: ‘If you haven’t got scale, use controversy. Be relentless in the pursuit of getting your thing in people’s faces.’
Caldwell examines the role of the designer as part of the team, and how publications are a reflection of society. Editorial director and writer Ian Birch describes Edward Enninful’s impact as the new editor at British Vogue: ‘He made it his project to turn Vogue into a vehicle for diversity.’
In an interview with photographer Platon, Caldwell talks about his images having an ‘unapologetic authenticity’, and a refusal to caricature his subjects.
In the book’s ‘Hall of Fame’ section it is good to be reminded of magazine history, including work like Pearce Marchbank’s series of conceptual covers for Time Out (below, 1978, see Eye 44), the weekly London listings magazine.

Magazine guru Roger Black presents his ten rules of design. No. 10 is: ‘Get lumpy! The trouble with most design is it has no surprise. If you want people to pay attention you have to change pace in your presentation. A monotonous rhythm … is like a stew without lumps.’
Students and old hands will find many things to learn from (and be reminded of) in Editorial Design.
Simon Esterson, Eye art director, London
First published in Eye no. 107 vol. 27, 2025
Eye is the world’s most beautiful and collectable graphic design journal, published for professional designers, students and anyone interested in critical, informed writing about graphic design and visual culture. It is available from all good design bookshops and online at the Eye shop, where you can buy subscriptions and single issues.