Architectural Digest Redesign
To take an outmoded magazine and bring the cover and table of contents a fresh look
To take an outmoded magazine and bring the cover and table of contents a fresh look
For this assignment, I was to find a magazine that was stuck in a design rut and bring it a fresh new look. 'Architectural Digest' sprang instantly to mind because I don't think I have ever seen it in any other format, much like 'National Geographic.' I wanted a design that totally broke away from their cliched white border and their unintelligilbe table of contents. The cover was easy. I thought that seeing as the magazine dealt with the "building blocks" of houses, perhaps I could use that in a sophisticated, yet still child-like way. And my building block house came to be (quite literally, because I didn't do a shortcut of creating everything in the computer, but actually bought wooden blocks and used stickers.)
I also updated the logo, into a fun retro 'AD', which I took fabric swatches as inspiration. Where the table of contents came from was the idea of breaking apart the blocks and thinking of each section of a house as a story. Just trying to figure out their current table of contents in order to generate the text for this one was hard and mystifying, proving that yes, indeed, they need a new table of contents.
I also updated the logo, into a fun retro 'AD', which I took fabric swatches as inspiration. Where the table of contents came from was the idea of breaking apart the blocks and thinking of each section of a house as a story. Just trying to figure out their current table of contents in order to generate the text for this one was hard and mystifying, proving that yes, indeed, they need a new table of contents.
The finished cover including spine.
My building block house, a little worse for the wear.
Close up of my little blocks.
Table of contents page one, with a slightly darker background pattern than the second page, which was to look like stylized wood.
The second page of the table of contents, with a lighter wooden background, perhaps birch?
