Needing to work more with editorial design, I chose the magazine redesign as my next project. Previous to coming to school, I did a summer internship with Outdoors NW Magazine, previously Sports Etc. Magazine. Mired down by the ultimate veto power of the Publisher of the magazine, the look of the publication is stale, and quite poor in appearance. My goals with the redesign were to give an overall cleaner look, use more eye catching images and provide more visual pace on the inside of the magazine. To the right, I have my redesigned cover (Images of the magazine in its current state are at the bottom of the post.). The nametype logo gets away from artificial effects and opts for a face that pulls the eye across the cover, and down to the featured story headline. The overall angle is mirrored in logo, feature story headline, other story teasers, and barcode.
Table of Contents
The table of contents in the original itteration of the magazine was compressed onto one page. As stated earlier in the goals, I wanted to provide more visual space. Again, the logo’s line is pulling the eye across the two page spread of table of contents, and the color scheme is reflected from the cover. The whitespace in the photograph served as a backdrop for the TOC information. The same font was used that is used on the logotype.
The Feature Spread
On the teaser spread, the headline of the story is in the same face used on the cover. I created the font used for the “Shift” part in Illustrator using a pattern brush. The cogs were also created in Illustrator using a pattern brush applied to a circle path. These are re-used on the following page to backdrop the pull quote. The sign graphic uses Portland’s Bike Boulevard signage, but changes the neighborhood listings to real estate listings. It is vague, but I feel more impactful when the reader realizes that there is the change.
The next two pages are the meat of the story, paired up with a sidebar story that relates to the main feature. The leading was kept loose to provide plenty of breathing room for the text. Picture captions are done in the same red used in the logo type, but in the same face (although a larger point size) as the body copy. The pull quote shows the cogs that were used on the front spread, placed behind the quote. The punctuation is hanging, and the quotes are red to match the captions. The sidebar’s background starts at the column gutter, and continues to the edge in a bleed. The text loses about a pica of space due to the sidebar starting where the text usually would.
Original Layout
Here is an exmaple of what Outdoors NW is currently doing. All graphic designers would be shocked to see this. Orphans and widows all over the copy, terrible picture choices, and stretched typography on “Table of Contents”. I have a feeling that this publication is thinking, we’re a free magazine, so EFF-YOU good design!
