In this magazine, I tried to capture the artwork of the famous sculptor, Alberto Giacometti. I tried to keep the color scheme and layout to a minimalistic design, and the colors represent the clay that was used in his artworks. There are lots of browns in this design, as I thought that they would go hand in hand with each other. I tried keeping it close to a representation of an art museum’s feel that is sleek and minimalistic, letting the artwork speak for itself. I like the idea of starting the article off with “Edge of Madness” really capturing the state Giacometti was in when creating his art pieces.
As someone who also has a creative art background, I think it is important to highlight how a lot of artist spend so much time on their pieces that it starts driving them mad. Then, for the second story of the article, I wanted to showcase his paintings and drawings at the Tate in London. Seeing his earlier artwork, you can tell his designs have changed because of the madness that was driving him. I think that it is important to note that the artist themselves are their worst critics and the feelings of creating an art piece are seen through their artworks.
I ended up trying to capture and highlight Giacometti himself. I think that it is important to know the artist’s true intentions before making assumptions on the “why” and “how” when it comes to an art piece. Art is beautiful, and art is interpreted in many different forms. I took what I learned in my art class and tied it back to the magazine to encapsulate the meaning of Giacometti’s work.
My main aim for this Harry Beck tube map spread was to let the subject matter lead the design by using Beck’s own design principles to tell his story. I think this approach was successful, as the geometric layout, color palette, and clean typography all work together to tell a story about design revolution.
Click image to see my full design!
The key takeaway from this project was to let content inform. By arranging text blocks with the same clarity and logic that made Beck’s map so great, I created a dialogue between his work and modern editorial design. I could have taken this further with more dynamic text layouts that truly mirrored his spatial innovations. This project taught me the balance between honoring historical design and meeting modern readability needs; a tension that actually made the final piece stronger and gave me a framework to use in future publication work.
My goal was to create a visually engaging and informative magazine that highlights the impact of design history—especially through Harry Beck’s Tube map. I believe the final product achieves this, offering clear storytelling paired with strong visuals.
I used clean, modern fonts for readability and chose a muted color palette to give the magazine a timeless, professional feel. Images—especially of Beck’s map—were central to the layout, helping guide the reader through the narrative visual
This project gave me a deeper understanding of how thoughtful design decisions can enhance storytelling. One of my goals was to create a consistent visual language that tied the magazine together, and while I achieved that in many ways, I also ran into challenges that taught me valuable lessons.
A major success was the intentional use of red and cream tones throughout the magazine. These colors were inspired by the vintage train on the cover and helped establish a retro yet bold aesthetic that connected with the historical focus of the Harry Beck story. Carrying that color scheme across different pages gave the magazine a cohesive tone and subtly reinforced the subject matter without needing to say it outright.
In the map evolution section, I used colored lines that mirrored the actual Tube line colors found in Beck’s diagrams. That design choice wasn’t just decorative—it was meant to echo the visual structure and clarity that made Beck’s map so iconic. It helped visually tie the reader back to the concept of simplification and design efficiency, which was a core theme of the article.
However, not every design decision was successful. I struggled with margin consistency, which made some pages feel slightly off-balance. It’s a small detail that has a big impact on how professional a spread feels, and I now see the importance of double-checking these layout basics. Another area that didn’t meet my expectations was the silhouette of the blurry man on the cover. It was meant to add mystery and atmosphere, but the execution fell short—it looks more like a flaw than a design choice. Next time, I’ll refine my image editing and be more intentional with how effects like blur are used. Not to mention I mistakenly made the cover across an entire spread!
Overall, I learned that subtle details—like color matching, spacing, and visual references—make a big difference in the user experience. I also learned to critique my work more honestly and recognize when something isn’t working visually. In the future, I plan to push my design skills further by exploring more refined layout structures and becoming more detail-oriented with spacing and imagery.
Before starting my design process, I knew that I wanted to focus on the story about Antonio Giacometti for my main article and the album covers for my ASF. My goal was to make the magazine appear as an homage to design in all its forms, not just through my choice of images, but through my layouts and typography choices as well. I wanted each page/section to have its own design story while remaining connected to the magazine as a whole.
Starting with the cover, I chose the image of Big Ben because I liked how clearly you can see the tower’s intricate details. It echoed the elegance and beauty that I associated with London and wanted to convey through the magazine. That is why I also incorporated a PT serif font on the cover, which I also used as my main body copy text throughout my other spreads. My headings I kept in a sans serif font to maintain simplicity against the complex background. It was really rewarding to be able to apply the sandwiching effect that we learned in the Bub cover tutorial here.
For my ASF, I definitely struggled at first to figure out how I wanted the layout to look like. At first, I tried creating a design using music staff lines, but I struggled with making it aesthetically pleasing. It took me a good while of brainstorming to figure out what direction I wanted to go in. Finally, I was thinking about what associations to music I could make with my design and, thinking about the music that the bands of the album covers played, I thought of an electric guitar. I decided to make a design where I could use the guitar frets as a visual for the ranking of the album covers. With some careful browsing on Adobe Stock, I found an image I felt was perfect for the mood and proceeded with placing the album covers from there. I had to alter the body copy slightly to make sure it could all fit, but I ended up with a design that I am very proud of. The body copy typography I kept consistent with the rest of the magazine, but incorporated the Phosphate font for my display typography because its lines remind me of a music record.
In my opening spread, I wanted the image I chose to reflect the title of the article, “Edge of Madness.” I started with an image of Giacometti painting a sculpture, but ended up changing it to an image of Giacometti standing in his messy studio. It was the perfect opportunity to preview the article by including the first paragraph on the opening spread that specifically addresses how messy Giacometti’s studio was. I used an Adobe Handwriting font for my descriptive typography because its scrawled and loopy look made it feel more personal to the artist (and also a little more “mad”). I incorporated that same font into the sidebar heading on my second spread. Finally, I wanted to keep the same “black and white” feel on my opening and second spreads, so I kept the color design minimal and simple. I only included a little bit of yellow highlight to add some variation and emphasis where needed.
Overall, this project was very challenging, but incredibly rewarding. I am proud of how much I improved in being able to think of a design that I wanted to create and then physically producing that design. I am excited to continue exploring InDesign and developing my skills more in the future.
Making this magazine was an enjoyable experience and also taught me a lot about design, particularly how its not as easy as it seems. For this design, I wanted to make something that I think would represent the city of London well. I used a color scheme based off the London Underground transit map which was the focal story of my magazine. I primarily stuck with red, white, and blue but used other colors based on the iconic map. I wanted to keep the design fairly minimal and clean for the layouts by constraining how much was on each page to help with readibilty and hierarchy. I used Oswald for the headlines because it gives a bold look while not being too “loud” and Helvecta and Georgia for subtext and body text because of its minimal look and feel.
The overall expereince of making this was one worthwhile. I learned about the expressions of different types and how one works better at commnunicating your design than another. I learned about many stylistic techniques such as the “sandwiching” of Big Ben on the cover. These techniques are still imperfect so I have a long way to go until I become an expert at it. I wish I could’ve done more on the ASF. I had a really good sketch that didn’t translate to paper as I thought. I think I got too ambitious and wanted to do something beyond my skill level. I will learn to step back and set realistic goals next time so I don’t waste time headbanging over one certain sketch. I can also improve on my color usage, particularly in making it look more professional. I should’ve utilized more techniques in making them pop more so it looks more appealing to the eye.
I found this project quite challenging in a very rewarding way. I often felt exactly where I needed to be as far as my eye for design and technical understanding of InDesign and Photoshop. This meant that I felt perfectly equipped, but that there was no spot where I was fully comfortable with my abilities.
I used a minimalist design for my cover, highlighting the Tube merchandise I would later use for my sidebar. I did this to help strengthen the overall visual and thematic cohesiveness of my design. I used Time and National Geographic as inspirations for what a more minimalist magazine cover can be. My use of the thick frame in the bleed area is an obvious ripoff of those covers. The primary focus on one large subject or setpiece, a smaller focus on a simple brand identity, then some small text for the date and an explaination of the image is also a formula often seen on this type of cover.
I originally tried a cutout of Big Ben on a more abstract background for the cover page. I had two primary issues: 1) I was not fond of how my ideas looked when completed, and 2) creating image cutouts are my greatest weakness in this class so far. I get a bit better with each attempt, but I was simply not happy with my transparent Big Ben at the time. It’s a difficult shape to cut out and I’m still struggling with coins and bottles.
My opening spread is also minimalist, which is still a way to utilize my perceived current strengths. The bars with text over a Gaussian-blurred map of the London underground gives me an opportunity to showcase the map in a grand fashion without overcomplicating the design.
The minimalism also allowed me to work efficiently on the next spread. I used two images, one of Beck and one of the 1933 map, which framed the story well and allowed it to fill the available space almost perfectly without many subtle tweaks. The story is about the origins of the map, so I wanted the map someone can actually spend time looking at to be the 1933 draft. A full version of the modern map is easy for someone to find if they would like to look. Including the image of Beck also felt necessary.
My sidebar used the “Tube Gear” idea. Through the cover and a frame around a white background, I wanted to make the sidebar feel like an integral part of the story. I then used three items that allowed for puns and alliteration. I complimented that with a playful decorative type. I imagine this is a common kind of sidebar to see in ThreeSixFive Magazine.
I broke with minimalism for my ASF in order to challenge myself and distinguish it from the rest of my project. This was incredibly difficult. I still feel as if the spacing I gave each object and the size everything ended up being is deeply flawed. I worry that things may feel uncentered and non-rythmic, even if the proportions are technically very squared. I am, overall, still very proud of the design. Despite its flaws, it is the page that makes me surprised that I put it together as an amateur graphic designer.
My goals for my publication was to create something that felt cohesive as well as to properly choose text fonts and colors that aligned with the images being used and the stories being told. I wanted to create something that caused me to have to use some of the new skills that I have learned in this class so far. I do feel as though I was successful in completing these goals. I feel like the fonts that I picked were decent choices and they did not seem out of place. Outside of when I used black and white, the colors that I chose to use for the text matched certain colors in the images. I also used a couple of new skills that I learned. When choosing font colors, I used the eyedropper tool on the images. I utilized the rectangle tool on my ASF page and also used the eyedropper tool for the colors of each rectangle. For my spread, I went back to what we learned during our Will Cactus assignment. I used the quick selection tool and then adjusted the hue, saturation, and lightness properties to color everything outside of Alberto Giacometti.
For the cover of the magazine, I wanted it to look more like a touristy magazine. I chose the image that I chose as I feel like it is the type of image you typically see on a tourist/travel magazine. I wanted the font colors to not just be white and black, so I decided to pull colors from the image by using the eyedropper tool. When it came to the spread and I read the word “madness”, I thought it would be neat to utilize a color that I associate with the word “madness”. I originally thought of red, but went with blue as it is another color I associate with the word. I also just simply thought it was a fun way to play around with tools that I learned how to use in Photoshop and thought that the pop of color would stand out more than just the plain image. When it came to the two pages that incorporated the rest of the main story as well as the side bar, I wanted to keep it simple. I just put the text in a normal layout and used Times New Roman for the font. With the side bar, I did try to make it more interesting with the colors. Again, I used the eyedropper tool and used a color from each image in the text box. For the ASF, I once again did a simple layout, but I decided to add lots of color. I think that music is such a fun topic and I think lots of color helps to encapsulate that fun. I utilized the eyedropper tool here as well.
I learned that it is extremely important to be selective and intentional with the images that you choose. I found myself at certain times picking certain images because I liked them more. However, I learned that the image you like the best does not always fit the story or the text the best. During my original design, I was implementing way too many different fonts. I thought it would be fun to incorporate so many that I liked, but I found that it did not work for this specific project. It only made it look messy. This mistake taught me to better understand that it is better to use less when it comes to the number of fonts. I can definitely work to improve on making more interesting layouts. I feel as though most of my layouts are quite simple.
For my final project, I created a magazine spread for THREESIXFIVE: The London Issue, and it ended up being one of the most rewarding design experiences I’ve had. This project helped me understand how editorial design goes beyond just layout, and it’s really about storytelling, pacing, and guiding the reader through both visuals and text in a meaningful way.
One of the biggest things I learned was how to use alternative story forms to break up information and make it more engaging. For example, the album cover feature uses visual hierarchy and icons to let readers scan quickly, which added variety to the overall reading experience. I also gained a lot of insight into how important type choices are. I used bold, expressive fonts for headlines and paired them with clean serif text for readability, especially in the Giacometti feature, which needed to feel both artistic and serious.
Design-wise, I went with a muted, modern color palette inspired by London and museum spaces, to tie the art and cultural themes together. I used full-bleed images for impact and kept a consistent grid throughout to make sure everything felt cohesive. The cover is simple and type-driven, which I felt set the tone well for the rest of the issue.
Overall, this project really pushed me to think like a designer, not just about how things look, but how they function and communicate. It was a great way to apply everything we’ve been learning this semester, and I’m proud of how it all came together.
Going into this project, I had three main goals that I wanted to reach. My first goal was to create effective layouts that had a good balance within their designs. I wanted to focus on this because I have not had to make a magazine like this before, so I wanted to use this as an opportunity to get more experience and grow in this area. My second goal was to work on speaking with type in this project, since I haven’t had a lot of opportunity to play with type and use it to express ideas in past projects. Finally, as I worked on the project, I put more of my focus on creating a cohesive design for my magazine. I realized that I was struggling with this as I continued to work on the project, so I created this goal for myself so I would focus on it more.
The first design choices I made involved the cover. Going into the magazine I knew that I wanted to focus on the “Five best albums” and the “Going Underground” stories; however, these two story topics don’t really have much in common so I spent a lot of time thinking about what cover image to use. I chose cover-17 because I thought it evoked the feelings of a punk rock musician, due to the way the man was dressed and posed. The image also was set in the Tube so I thought this cover image did a good job of combining the two articles I used. Once I chose my image I made a cutout of the hand to interact with the magazine title to create more visual interest in the image and pulled colors from the image to color the title as well.
My second design choices I made involved the typography I used for the ASF article. I spent some time messing with the typography of the ASF. I thought it would be cool to have the headline be in a square box to look like an album cover, but it was hard to get it to look right since I was using a three column layout on this page. Then I tried taking the typographic elements of the text on each album cover to make the headline. I decided that this was too busy and it took away from the images of album covers themselves, which was the focal point of the story. Instead, I decided to use the same font on the cover for all of my article headlines, to create a cohesiveness between each story. I then used this font to create large numbers next to the albums and made each number a color that came from the album to create visual interest and draw the reader’s eyes.
For “Going Underground”, I spent a lot of time deciding what images I should use for the story. Since the article was about Henry Beck and his map, as well as how Henry Beck is relatively unknown as a designer, I decided I wanted the opening image to be of Beck with “the diagram” to highlight his important role in the design of the Tube map. For the headline type, I decided to line up the word “underground” with the line of the map on the wall, and I made each letter of the word a different color from the different lines on the Tube to add a little color to the image and create an eyecatching headline. I then used the maps of the Tube within the article, placing them at the points of the story where they were specifically mentioned. I figured as a reader, I would finish reading about the map and then want to see it, especially since I am not from London. I also chose to use “Tube Gear” as my side bar, since it correlated with the content of the article better than the side bar about the posters..
When it comes to my creative process, I noticed that I have an easier time coming up with designs for individual articles or singular parts of a magazine, but I have a harder time making a cohesive design across the articles. I think this is because I usually use the articles and the images within them as inspiration for the design, colors, elements, etc. that I use. This meant that as I was working on this project a lot of the elements and colors varied from article to article, so I felt like I had a hard time creating something that felt cohesive across the whole project. As part of this I realized that a lot of the cohesiveness within the magazine comes from typographic consistency across the articles, so I am going to keep this in mind for future projects. I also had a hard time with getting my images sized correctly, especially when I was trying to adjust the resolution. I had to go back and fix some of the images multiple times because they didn’t look right or were too blurry, so this is something I want to continue to work on in the future. Finally, I also learned that when it comes to my design style, I tend to like simpler typographic choices when it comes to fonts. I liked using one font for all of the headlines within the magazine because it felt cleaner and more cohesive and I enjoyed using color, size, and the layout of the text to make each headline unique, despite using the same type.
For this magazine project, my goal was to create a clean and visually unified design that felt like a real publication. I wanted to highlight the artistic energy of London while maintaining clear readability across all six pages. I chose the Giacometti theme for the main article because I felt that his artistic style matched well with the architectural depth of my selected cover image. For the ASF page, I used a clean grid layout to showcase the five best album covers of all time, keeping typography minimal to let the visuals speak for themselves.One of the main challenges I faced was making the cover text readable on a busy photo background. I initially tried both white and black text, but neither stood out well enough against the brick wall. I considered using a semi-transparent black box behind the text, but in the end, I decided to go with a bold blue font color, which created a strong contrast while still matching the overall tone of the image. I think this solution balanced visibility and aesthetics in a cleaner way.
