Shuffle Magazine
A magazine covering Atlanta's trap music scene
Overview
Timeline
3 months
My Role
Visual Design, Branding, Experience Design
Trap music is an important part of the South's history and has made its mark on the music world and I wanted to pay homage to the genre and explore this through a visual approach in a magazine format.
Deliverables
Physical product, Product mockups & prototypes
Brief
Shuffle Magazine is a series where a team and I created a music-themed magazine where each edition covers a different genre, so the proposed subscribers would get an introduction to a new genre every month. I chose to cover 'trap' which is a local genre to Atlanta, GA, and has its roots in the Deep South and has now exploded to take over the entire world. I wanted to explore this genre in this magazine and in particular feature different elements that have been born and raised in Georgia. Trap has a lengthy history and a long-contested one that is only growing more and more.
Front Cover
I decided on a sketch type of effect on the overall logo to reference the street and rebellious nature of the trap genre that is present in a lot of its culture.
I also took a picture of a piece from the Trap Music Museum and edited it in Lightroom to create different lighting effects to get the best bold pop of color.
Here is a feature of the full spread of the front and back cover. The photograph is consistent from front to back and the back cover features a pattern of the Shuffle Magazine logo to help establish brand awareness and create some diversity and excitement in the design.
The spine features the title consistently with each edition featuring a different month per music edition.
*THE ORIGINAL PIECE ON THE FRONT COVER IS BY PHOTOGRAPHER JONATHAN MANNION*
Feature Article
"Welcome to the Trap" is the title of the main featured article. The article highlights the pop-up museum's addition to the Atlanta landscape that tells a visual story of trap through different artifacts showcasing different rappers and their varied stories. The museum was co-founded by Atlanta rapper T.I and Antwanette McLaughlin.
I highlighted different features of the museum like the initial corner store decorated entrance to the implanted pink trap house by 2Chainz, and different art installations using photography. I kept the color palette consistent throughout the article to help guide the reader and serve as a visual reminder of the starting and end checkpoints.
Supporting Articles
For the magazine, I included two supporting articles that highlight two important aspects of the trap genre, the new generation of women who are taking over the rap world and the producers behind these heavy major hits. I wanted to highlight their power equally to the rappers who have established this genre as this genre is always growing.
I utilized two different illustration styles to create a bold cover photo for the start of the article and referenced different cultural elements that have not been akin to trap music like old traditional paintings.
Ads & Complementary Content
For the supplemental content such as the advertisements and the "Need to Know" section, I created illustrations, photography, and recreated various brand slogans like Nike. The "Need to Know" section was included in each edition as the general vocabulary and terminology that a reader would need to know to understand this genre.
I centered the ads around Atlanta and made sure the content had bold pops of colors and still aesthetically similar to the rest of the magazine to make sure it was all coherent and consistent.