One Sheet Magazine
A uniquely folded magazine featuring an interview with a GSU alumna
Overview
Timeline
2-3 weeks
My Role
Visual Design, Experience Design, Interactive Design
The goal of this magazine was to showcase an alumnus of Georgia State Univ's design program, their personal brand, and their thoughts on all things life and design.
Deliverables
Product prototype, Process
Brief
Kaylin Yang is a graphic design alumna of Georgia State University and I was tasked with creating a one-sheet magazine that featured both an interview and a poster of her. The physical magazine's dimensions had to be around 12x18 inches and also feature some sort of folding mechanism or fold at least once in some kind of way. The theme of the magazine would also center around design and the subject's relationship with design in whatever sense that was relevant to them.
Final Solution
"Don't let anyone else tell you how much your time and skills are worth"
For the final solution, I aimed to create a unique and inviting experience that also spoke to the subject's personality and brand.
I conducted a qualitative interview with the subject and used that information to inform my decisions on the color palette, the typefaces, and the graphic elements.
FOLDING MECHANISM BREAKDOWN
The Poster
The poster was entirely drawn by hand.
I wanted to give the entire design a clean,
but handmade look to it, to help make the magazine more approachable and dynamic for the reader.
So, for the portrait and the flowers, these were all drawn on paper and translated digitally for the final solution.
The Interview
The interview featured questions asking the subject about her advice on design, life, and post-grad thoughts.
Scroll down to get a more in-depth glance at the qualitative interview process and see a few of the sample interview questions. 👇
PROCESS
Qualitative Interview
The interview was conducted digitally and Kaylin was kind enough to spare me her time for this interview and this project (Thanks Kaylin!).
I created a list of twenty questions that the subject could choose between. The questions' topics ranged from thoughts on design, first introduction to design, to advice about life, among other topics.
Interview Questions:
Q: When were you first introduced to graphic design?
A: I have never taken a class on it until college. Plus, I never really knew graphic design was a real job until high school. I was interested in magazine layouts, social media graphics, and logos, but I didn’t know there was an actual field called graphic design.
Q: Do you remember any advice a professor gave to you that still sticks with you?
A: Never sell yourself short. When I first started out freelancing by myself, I didn’t know how to sell my work for what it’s worth...Not everyone is a designer, so they might not understand the idea that a lot of hard work goes into creating a logo or a poster. Don’t let anyone else tell you how much your time and skills are worth.
Q: Do you have a favorite color/typeface style?
A: If you have already met me, you know that my favorite color is pink. I have a pink computer case, pink phone, pink backpack, pink wallet, pink folders, and even a pink logo.
Pull Quotes:
I also selected a few quotes to choose from, to feature as pull quotes as an additional typographic element to the overall composition:
#1 Don't let anyone else tell you how much your time and skills are worth
#2 No matter how difficult the problem seems, try to stay optimistic and don't put so much stress on yourself
#3 Never sell yourself short
PROCESS
The Fold
I experimented with origami a lot growing up and I really wanted to reference this traditional art and welcomed the challenge of creating a successful fold out of a 12x18 large piece of paper. I went through multiple different folds and iterated a few different designs on them before I ultimately decided on the final fold.
My main focus for the fold was making sure that it was still accessible despite its seeming complexity. Essentially, I wanted it to look cool, but still open and close easily for the average user (maybe make it take two attempts max for cool points).
These are a few different fold iterations that I went through and roughly prototyped. The fold not only had to be successful in these restrictive measurements, but it also had to have a layout that was conducive for a lot of text and content.
The iterations range from very simplistic to some very complex folds.
DIFFERENT FOLD ITERATIONS
These are some different layout and composition iterations that I experimented with. My main focus was to see how much of the content would fit properly in the layout.
Secondly, I experimented with some alternate color combinations ranging from softer to bolder color palettes.
DIFFERENT LAYOUT AND COLOR ITERATIONS
PROCESS
Design Iterations
These were my initial draft designs and after some more testing and some more iterations, I was able to narrow down the typographic composition and started focusing on creating a system that the type and layout could generally follow.
I also went through multiple different drawings and experimented a bit with the drawing style for the visual elements of the poster, alongside a few different color options I went through as well before deciding on the final fold, composition, and colors.
CONCLUSION
Takeaways
Creating this one-sheet magazine really allowed me to push my interaction design skills to the limit and learn how to bring the 2D space to life. I loved being able to explore the experimental folds of origami and figuring out a contemporary solution for it to thrive in.
I also learned the importance of "the process" and how important it is to get your design in "the user's/reader's" hands to see how others react to your design decisions.
