I was apart of the design team invited to create the 13th issue of the digital publication FRANK–a project based multidisciplinary task for Columbia College Chicago. We combined ideas, concepts, and various stories to create the concept for the 13th publication. We pushed to inspire, voice the opinions of our student body, and hoped to create a curated collection of articles with a little bit of everything for everyone. We broke off into several teams to work collaboratively and create all the content for our publication.
As a part of publication creation, I developed a brand identity to adhere to with the articles with room for flexibility of content and visuals provided.
Our cover was inspired by selection from each of our articles. I created this alongside another designer to exemplify our take on the publication: taking squares of imagery seen in each of our articles. We wanted our title to flow between our imagery from the publication. The flow of the title follows similarly to a game of snake. We thought this would be a fun and visual grabbing cover that also addressed the large expanse of our publication coverage. Small details from each article shown visually together in a fun, beautiful, and attention grabbing way.
DATING IN YOUR 20's
The visual identity for "Dating in your 20s" was designed in collaboration with another designer on the FRANK team. We worked to incorporate the photoshoot with feelings of romance and desire.
The red consistent throughout is a staple to the article, exemplifying the themes of love. Text overlaying images and images ontop of each other in a large scale and romantic atmosphere gives the feeling of overwhelming love or desire in the article as a whole.
The main focus for this article was the photoshoot and the photography that instils the feeling of warmth and desire. The red expresses love, regardless of gender. The visual aesthetics of the piece reflects the current era of dating and the experimental and contemporary feeling of romance and dating in this modern day.
We worked to center the photography and the feeling of the piece rather than an individual narrative through our layout design.
STYLING CLOTHES
The landing page covers each section from our 5 Ways to improve your style article. I worked as the sole designer on this article and worked heavily with the photographer to maintain the integrity of the photographs with our visual direction. The cutouts and halftone effects push for the trendy approach.
The colors are bold, and textures reflect textured fabric and layering. There is a heavy push for layering and the text works in a geometric way to accent aspects of the article layout. Zoomed in imagery to accent various parts of the photographs that highlight the essence of the article.
The appeal is a very free flowing yet structured approach, the photographs following a grid-like approach with additional elements added and pasted onto and behind images. We see this with the fluidity between the posed, catalogue stylized photography and the runway looks.
ROOMMATE HORROR STORIES
We surveyed 13 anonymous individuals who submitted their roommate horror stories. I worked on the design of this article with another designer from the FRANK team–inspired by vintage portraits and a murder mystery style of design. We scanned ink prints onto paper and recolored them to give the effect of bloody hand and fingerprints. The text pushes the horror feeling with a script effect, reminiscent of the bloodstains around the article and throughout each story.
The illustrations of the portraits invert when hovered over, and in this showcases which story you will be reading. The images in each article are miniature replicas of items named in the stories. They are made black and white, and half-toned to give an eerie feeling of a horror story and keeping consistency between each story. The vintage portraits layered with bloody handprints sit next to the horror stories, and the UI back to the landing page is done with a click of the bloody fingerprint.
XIII SUPERSTITIONS
13 Superstitions from around the world and color coded in red and blue: red for negative superstitions and blue for positive superstitions. They are layered above a starry sky to give a feeling of the something astral and celestial.
Hand drawn illustrations with texture overlayed to give the appearance of textured paper. The illustrations seen in blue and red, and when clicked upon they turn over and the information about the superstition is revealed.
These illustrations are done in inspiration from tarot cards and with a very pencil drawn look and feel. They are paired with very dark aspects so the cards don't appear too separate from the background.
They are highlighted and have gradient tonal shifts to give a softer approach with more shadows to give it a personal and ghostly feeling to tie into the tarot card theme.
FRANK Edition XIII is all about contemporary ideas and how we visually showcase them. Working as a team to balance ideas, concepts, and visuals–we worked as a team to build our unique voices and story into a publication.
The entire publication in all it's glory can be viewed at https://frankxiii.squarespace.com/