GUT- GESTALTEN

Development and print of an editorial design for a magazine on typography

gutgestalten magazibe lying on a table

GUT- GESTALTEN

Development and print of an editorial design for a magazine on typography

gutgestalten magazibe lying on a table

GUT- GESTALTEN

Development and print of an editorial design for a magazine on typography

01

PROJECT BRIEF

Timeline

Sep 21 – Mar 22

Client

This group project was created during my master’s studies in Digital Design.

Gutgestalten is an annual magazine published by the graphic design students at the University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten.

02

THE CHALLENGE

The 2022 publication of gutgestalten revolves around the topic of typography. Our class has summarised the most important and interesting topics around the subject, from the evolution of fonts, over the use of digital font formats on the web and the significance of accessibility, to the use of icons in modern visual design.

I worked together with my eleven colleagues of the graphic design masterclass to create this year’s issue. Collaborating with many team members means developing many ideas, but it also means having to make many compromises. Of course, the obvious challenge consisted of creating content that is interesting to read and a layout that is visually appealing. However, I think the main challenge beyond that was to honestly review everyone’s ideas, combine them in an impactful way and to dare to make decisions that are best for the project instead of over compromising.

03

THE DESIGN PROCESS

INDIVIDUAL
Drafting the articles

TEAM
Developing the editorial design

INDIVIDUAL Designing all articles

INDIVIDUAL
Creating cover designs

TEAM
Et Voilá! Finalizing the magazine
TEAM
Printing

03.1

DRAFTING THE ARTICLES

INDIVIDUAL

Sure, layouting is important, but another crucial ingredient for the magazine is, of course, the content.
We kicked off this project with gathering and dividing the article topics and started typing. I developed the last chapter, which is all about the future of typography. Good old visits to the library and late-night research sessions resulted in this 4-pager, from the requirements of modern type and typography trends to the potential future relevance of scripture as a way of communicating in the digital age (yep, it got real philosophical real fast). Several feedback loops and reviews later, the articles were ready to go (…go into InDesign, to be exact).

03.2

DEVELOPING THE
EDITORIAL DESIGN

TEAM

In teams of three, we generated the first concepts for the editorial design, deciding on fonts, colour palettes and layout. This resulted in four unique designs, below you can see the design my team came up with.
magazine opened up on a table with the first design
different details of our layout
We then reviewed all designs together, getting inspired by each other’s work and deciding on the components we want to keep for the final design. Admittedly, this was not an easy task since saying Yes to one idea, meant saying No to another. But with the final design, we found a nice balance of modern type, different plays of contrast and readability.
gutgestalten-chapter-page-wide-min

03.3

DESIGNING THE ARTICLES

INDIVIDUAL

Now that we had all the ingredients ready, we could individually embed our articles into the design we agreed upon. This is how my chapter turned out.

gutgestalten magazine open on table
gutgestalten magazine open on table
sketches of the cover on a tablet

03.4

CREATING COVER DESIGNS

INDIVIDUAL

First impressions matter! A part of the development of the editorial design was the creation of a cover. Each student created their own designs.

This was a task that required creativity and experimentation and thus was one of my favourite steps in the process! I usually start with quick rough sketches to visualize first ideas before deciding on the ones I want to work on further. Below you can see three of my alternative cover designs. I wanted to play with the word “typeface” as well as large imagery.
gutgestalten magazine with alternative design face down on table
gutgestalten magazine with another alternative design face down on table
gutgestalten magazine with another alternative design face down on table

03.5

FINALIZING THE MAGAZINE

TEAM

And once again, we reviewed all proposals and decided on the one we wanted to finalize. We ended up with this final cover, a play on a pangram well known among typographers. The reduced look allows the type to stand out and ties together the look of the whole editorial design.

03.6

PRINT

TEAM

Designing a magazine is one thing, actually printing it is another. 

I was also part of the group who took care of the actual printing – making the pdf print-ready, communicating with the print shop, and choosing suitable (and eco-friendly) materials. So now, the magazine is not only nice to look at, but also nice to hold in one’s hand. 🙂

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