Graphic Design Portfolio for LifeStyle Magazine
LifeStyle Magazine
The re-design for LifeStyle Magazine I did involved a grid system that used the golden section as it's basis. After undergoing a design revision not long into the initial re-design, the departments kept to a strict clean consistent enough to allow the features to show through. The magazine's construction allowed for the reader to quickly navigate the magazine to find the desired article. The typography and grid systems facilitated the act of reading and helped lead the reader through a rich editorial experience.
Some of the visual identity elements from the initial magazine design needed to be rearranged, but clearly be connected to the old design as not to lose or confuse readers. The colored bars from the prior design were now used as department rubrics and were tamed down. The logo wasn't initially re-designed, but was also changed soon after the overhaul of the magazine.
The magazine was (and still remains to this day) extremely ad heavy, even for a magazine. However, a careful balance and attention was made to ensure that no advertisements ran through the featured articles. The department pages were optimized and mathematically calculated to allow a compact, yet pleasing, design so that more room could be made for ads under a strict budget of folios.
LifeStyle Magazine Media Kit
The media kit for LifeStyle Magazine was a larger than normal media kit project as the information updated constantly. In fact, so fast that if a large amount of copies were run off from a printer, half of them would be useless before they were delivered to prospects.
I designed a folder with inserts that could be updated more readily and run off in the office. The folder's gate fold took a bit of coordination with the printer and staff photographer (Rob Hall).
The final piece was printed on Stora Enso NovaPress Silk with spot varnish on the wine glasses.
Advertisements
Many advertisements needed to be designed in-house each month. Most of the local businesses did not have advertising agencies to supply them with ads. Being a new magazine, there wasn't a rich base of ads or stock imagery yet to draw from. Therefore, every advertisement received a lot of attention. Budgeting time was also an interesting task.
Photoshop work was extremely heavy with many ads as the photographs supplied were not always the best quality or several images needed to be combined for lack of having a proper photograph. Most advertisers didn't pay for professional photography so if there ever was a challenge of keeping integrity in the magazine - here it was.
