My first semester as Design Director for University Girl Magazine, I worked with a
co-director, assisting her with designing spreads, leading our team of designers, and figuring out logistics. While I only designed a few of the spreads myself, this experience prepared me to take on the role of Design Director on my own by teaching me magazine design fundamentals and leadership skills.
Laca is a beautiful typeface created by Joana Correia of the Nova Type Foundry. Correia and her foundry are both heavily influenced by their Portuguese roots and I wanted to honor that with my design. I used colors from the Portuguese flag and other symbols, shapes inspired by iconic Portuguese tiles, and some Portuguese words to create this 24 page booklet. I wanted this design to be big and bold, filled with color and contrast. Are you sensing a pattern in my work?
The biggest challenge in this project was creating continuity and consistency between the pages while also ensuring each page was something new and different.
I wanted to heavily feature the typeface’s “contextual alternates” and unique style, as well as include fun facts about Portugal including some its most famous cities and helpful phrases to know.
LACA:
TYPE SPECIMEN
This was a project in my Type and Image Design class where we were instructed to create seven variations of the same book cover, using only text and including a limited number of variables at a time. These were my favorite variations.
The leftmost cover was my third variation, in which I changed only one variable across all of the text: color. All of the text on the cover is the same size and weight and has the same line spacing. Considering gestalt principles, I used the text to create a shape that, while not an actual illustration, adds a similar visual interest,
The middle cover was my sixth variation, in which I changed the cover to a different language— Irish. We were still not allowed to use illustration in this cover, but I found a loophole— creating shapes with lines of text. I used the text to form clovers, a common symbol of luck.
For the final cover, we were allowed to use illustrations, so I painted myself in a green convertible using watercolor and masked it in Photoshop to layer it with the text. Inspired by some of the breakthroughs I had in the previous covers, I ended up using the text as a shape idea again.
This was a really interesting exploration of simplicity and creating hierarchy in simple forms. I wouldn’t have been able to come up with my idea for the final cover without each of the forms that came before it.
During my third semester working with University Girl Magazine, I served as the sole Design Director. This was my first real experience in any sort of creative direction role. I led a team of 10 designers through a four-draft process, providing critiques and one-on-one feedback throughout. I also designed 11 spreads myself, including the covers and the “Hookups from Hell” spread, one of our most popular sections (shown above).
With the theme “Rule Breakers,” I knew I wanted to knock it out of the park and really push the boundaries of everything we had done before, design-wise. I encouraged the designers to play with type and image, exploring how they can break the boundaries of the typical “fun-colored header, design in the bottom left corner” format we have used in past issues.
This was a complicated leadership role to take on. Getting busy college students to treat me as someone whose advice they should trust was no easy task, but I am beyond proud of the ideas we came up with together and I learned so much about publication design along the way.
During my third semester working with University Girl Magazine, I served as the sole Design Director. This was my first real experience in any sort of creative direction role. I led a team of 10 designers through a four-draft process, providing critiques and one-on-one feedback throughout. I also designed 11 spreads myself, including the covers and the “Hookups from Hell” spread, one of our most popular sections (shown above).
With the theme “Rule Breakers,” I knew I wanted to knock it out of the park and really push the boundaries of everything we had done before, design-wise. I encouraged the designers to play with type and image, exploring how they can break the boundaries of the typical “fun-colored header, design in the bottom left corner” format we have used in past issues.
This was a complicated leadership role to take on. Getting busy college students to treat me as someone whose advice they should trust was no easy task, but I am beyond proud of the ideas we came up with together and I learned so much about publication design along the way.
Laca is a beautiful typeface created by Joana Correia of the Nova Type Foundry. Correia and her foundry are both heavily influenced by their Portuguese roots and I wanted to honor that with my design. I used colors from the Portuguese flag and other symbols, shapes inspired by iconic Portuguese tiles, and some Portuguese words to create this 24 page booklet. I wanted this design to be big and bold, filled with color and contrast. Are you sensing a pattern in my work?
The biggest challenge in this project was creating continuity and consistency between the pages while also ensuring each page was something new and different.
I wanted to heavily feature the typeface’s “contextual alternates” and unique style, as well as include fun facts about Portugal including some its most famous cities and helpful phrases to know.
This was a project in my Type and Image Design class where we were instructed to create seven variations of the same book cover, using only text and including a limited number of variables at a time. These were my favorite variations.
The leftmost cover was my third variation, in which I changed only one variable across all of the text: color. All of the text on the cover is the same size and weight and has the same line spacing. Considering gestalt principles, I used the text to create a shape that, while not an actual illustration, adds a similar visual interest,
The middle cover was my sixth variation, in which I changed the cover to a different language— Irish. We were still not allowed to use illustration in this cover, but I found a loophole— creating shapes with lines of text. I used the text to form clovers, a common symbol of luck.
For the final cover, we were allowed to use illustrations, so I painted myself in a green convertible using watercolor and masked it in Photoshop to layer it with the text. Inspired by some of the breakthroughs I had in the previous covers, I ended up using the text as a shape idea again.
This was a really interesting exploration of simplicity and creating hierarchy in simple forms. I wouldn’t have been able to come up with my idea for the final cover without each of the forms that came before it.
UNIVERSITY GIRL:
RULE BREAKERS
LACA:
TYPE SPECIMEN
LUCKIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD: MY FAUX MEMOIR
My first semester as Design Director for University Girl Magazine, I worked with a
co-director, assisting her with designing spreads, leading our team of designers, and figuring out logistics. While I only designed a few of the spreads myself, this experience prepared me to take on the role of Design Director on my own by teaching me magazine design fundamentals and leadership skills.
UNIVERSITY GIRL:
UNFILTERED
publication design
LUCKIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD:
MY FAUX MEMOIR
my other work
UNIVERSITY GIRL:
RULE BREAKERS
UNIVERSITY GIRL:
UNFILTERED