Magazine Redesign
Upper & Lowercase
PROJECT BRIEF: Re-imagine the typography-focused magazine Upper & Lowercase. Design a logo, cover, and spread for the magazine.
PROBLEM: Upper & Lowercase has been out of print since the 90's and needs a fresh look for a reboot.
DESIGN INTENT: Lean into vintage advertising as a way to honor the origins of the magazine.
INSIGHT: I enjoy the finer details of spread design - aligning the baseline grid and hanging punctuation made my heart flutter.
OUTCOME: All of the iterative spread layouts from this project will easily lend themselves to future print projects. Physical media is having a comeback in a way that I'm very excited about.
SEE THE FULL CASE STUDY HERE
MOOD BOARDS: Upper & Lowercase (U&lc) magazine ran from 1970-1999 and this time period informed my design decisions. I was inspired by the limited color palettes in original U&lc covers and the yellowing and rough-textured pages that showed aging. I was interested in the sex appeal of cigarette advertising from vintage magazines and old Playboy covers.
LOGO SKETCHES: I started by sketching a few logo thumbnails. I explored mixing serif and sans serif fonts to reflect the simple and vintage aesthetics I’d liked in the research phase.
LOGO REVISION: I digitized and iterated on my favorite thumbnail sketches. After receiving peer feedback, there was a clear favorite. The combination of serifs and swashes in a minimal color palette make the logo feel timeless and uniquely recognizable.
COVER SKETCHES: I sketched quick cover design thumbnails to get a feel for layout. From my moodboard research, I knew I wanted a large photo and lots of negative space. Keeping the supporting articles small supported a strong sense of hierarchy.
COVER ROUGHS: I used the thumbnails to create rough digital compositions. I printed all 5 out at full size for peer feedback. The green one was a favorite and aligned closest to my original design intent.
COVER REVISION: For better printing, I widened the margins and upped point size for supporting articles. Adding a distressed texture to the cover made the magazine feel aged.
SPREAD ROUGHS: I started with 5 spread ideas and printed out at full size for peer review. I received feedback that the layouts felt too minimalist, looking more like an advertisement than an editorial spread.
SPREAD REVISION: I narrowed my focus to three and added details like a kicker, introduction, page numbers, headers, and website links to make the spreads feel more professional. I changed direction for the Pall Mall page, adding a grid layout to feature the full scope of this campaign.
FINAL + MOCK: I chose the violin spread for the final because of the emotional punch that the eye contact delivers. I reduced point size of the article title to increase readability.
