Traditional vs Experimental Editorial Design

Project Requirements:

Using the magazine article text provided, you will design several variations for two, 2-page editorial
spreads. Version one will be a functional and visually appealing design and version two will be an
expressive one where you will focus on the meaning and metaphors of the article.

Reflection:

For this project, I took the same article and created two editorial spreads: traditional and experimental. As a part of the ideation process, I sketched 50 different kinds of spreads to understand the versatility of editorial design and how much could be done with one article. Editorial design is often confined to the boxy structure we are used to, but my goal was to push the limits without disrupting the design too much.

This project challenged me creatively in a new way. I have often thought of creativity as the process of creating something unique, colorful, and perfect, but this project has shown me it is simply the process of playing. There is creativity in the mess and creating something, even if it is bad, is a step towards a finalized work. Designing is not just about the finished product, it is about all of the sketches, bad ideas, and critiques in between. Developing fifty different functional and expressive spreads seemed like a daunting task, but it helped me better my ideas. I learned that white space is important to help organize the space and allow it to breathe. Looking back on my original sketches for this project I realized I tended to fill the space, rather than letting the layout and the typography speak for itself.