Production: Creating The Grid For the Magazine Part 2

 Intro

In my last post, we looked at how to build a cover that grabs attention. But once the reader flips the page, the challenge changes: you have to sustain that attention through a long-form story. 

For the feature "The Silence of the Sidelines," I had to figure out how to balance Jorge's emotional recovery journey with the fast-paced energy of Everglades High soccer. This required moving away from the single-page logic of the cover and into a complex, multi-column spread.

In this post, I’ll explain how I manipulated the InDesign grid to create a "narrative flow" that guides the reader’s eye from the headline all the way to the final quote.

The 3-Column Columnar System

For the internal feature story, "The Silence of the Sidelines," the grid needs to do more "heavy lifting" than the cover. I moved from a 4-column cover grid to a 3-column columnar grid for the body text.

In InDesign, I set the gutters to 0.1875 inches to ensure readability while maximizing the number of words per page. You can see how the primary text, the "By Noah Leighton" byline and the opening paragraph—adheres strictly to this 3-column structure. 

However, to keep the layout from feeling like a textbook, I used image frames that break the grid. For instance, the central image of Jorge in action spans across two columns, creating a "break" that forces the reader's eye to stop and engage with the visual before moving to the "Return of #8" section. 

I also used text wraps around the chain-link graphic elements to integrate the "pull quotes" into the flow of the narrative.

Balancing Information and Emotion

Building this spread was a lesson in "editorial pacing." When I first started, the page felt too crowded with text. I had to make the difficult choice to cut about 150 words to allow for the "Ghost on the Bench" subhead to have enough white space (negative space) around it.

The use of the magenta pull quotes ("I heard it before I felt it...") acts as a secondary "entry point" for the reader. If someone is just flipping through, those quotes provide the emotional hook. 

The "Tough It Out Myth" section was a late addition; I felt the project was leaning too much into the physical injury and not enough on the "Peer Counseling" side of the athlete's experience. 

Integrating that section required me to shift the bottom-right image, but because I was working on a rigid grid, I was able to swap the text and image positions while maintaining a perfect horizontal alignment at the bottom of the page.

Reflect: 

Reflecting on this layout, I feel I’m definitely on the right track with the "professionalism" of the typography. 

The next step is to tackle the table of contents section in my magazine. This will require a more technical, infographic-heavy layout, which will be a challenge compared to this photo-driven feature. I plan to use the same 3-column base but incorporate more "call-out" boxes. I need to ensure the "Gators" branding remains consistent.