Assigned with the task of taking an "ugly" magazine and redesigning it, I was handed a copy of Irish Roots.
On the left is the original cover. On the right is my redesign. I selected a feature from the magazine to be the main article on the cover. All other features have been organized to the top left, with a few main stories and taglines, and the rest in a small list below.
I gave the design a complete re-haul. Their website used the spiral clover logo, but it did not appear in their magazine. I introduced it to the design, and made a new type treatment for the Irish Roots title. I also redesigned the organization of cover information to improve hierarchy and aesthetic appeal.
I redesigned the cover and interior of a print version of the magazine, and then adapted it to a digital magazine with Adobe InDesign's digital publishing capabilities. The digital edition took advantage of unique features like scrolling text boxes, flowing pages, and embedded links.
The new design easily accommodates the 3 typical cover styles of this magazine - current images, portraits, and old photography. Headlines all get similar type treatment, with additional article information organized in a top corner, wherever the photograph allows.
I also redesigned the entire interior of the magazine. In the original magazine, there were many different fonts, colors, and layouts used in the spreads without much consistency throughout. I created a running head that solved the inconsistent problem, and indicated themed sections with color.
Below is a flip-through of a few redesigned interior spreads.
I opened with a "breather" page, which would feature weekly Irish scenery and a quote.
I redesigned the table of contents into the form of a timeline, which felt appropriate for a magazine about researching ancestry.
The Editor's page I simplified, containing the letter, publishing info, and subscription form within organized modules.
Pages with a guest writer feature their portrait beside the header bar.
The feature articles open with a two-page image.
Smaller articles all fit onto one spread, with a nice image at the top.
