Spotlight

So I was editor in chief of a class magazine. We just turned it in today, and I'm so proud of it. It was just a wonderful experience. I did all of the design and layout, which was more work than I thought it would be (read 55-60 hours), but I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. Blogger doesn't let me upload PDFs, plus it's like 45 pages long, I took a few screenshots to show it off. Please be impressed.

*Just a note on design choices: I chose American Typewriter because the arts are very traditional, so a retro font alludes to something a little older, but it's still hipster and fun. I paired it with PT Sans, a clean modern san serif to give some contrast and allude to modernity. And of course, Times is a faithful standby Old Style font  that goes with everything. Used in body copy, it's a non-issue, and in a header it says "traditional." I used it for the opera and musem articles.

Our primary audience is 18-30 yr olds interested in the arts, living in the area, with a secondary audience of 31-45 yr olds. We are assuming a gender-neutral audience (meaning a fairly even split between male and female readers), so my color choice is significant. The teal is very popular in women's clothing, but it doesn't carry the same female connotations as a pink or purple. The strong orange is appealing to male readers, but is also fairly neutral. The softer green accent gives some visual rest and is a little more traditional (although, if I had to do it again, I would have made it slightly darker. Live and learn.)

The composition is dominantly vertical and thin, because our audience is used to reading on a screen, and narrow columns allow for easier skimming. It's also very geometric with a lot of structure, implying the canon of form that the arts have. But I break the form now and then and leave a lot of white space because the arts are an opportunity to break out and play in an open field.

In short, there's a lot of good things and a lot of things I would have changed. But still, not bad for a couple of college kids in 3 weeks.