TWINE Magazine
Twine is to match the environmentally-conscious consumers’ desire for sustainable shopping options, with fashionable and trendy attire that is as eco-friendly as it is uncompromising. In line with the environmentally-conscious consumer, the magazine features sustainable brands, methods for eco-friendly living, shopping guides, and stories from both fashion industry professionals and community making sustainable life-changes.
Senior Magazine Publishing Course (January - April 2019)
Photoshop, Illustrator, Google drive
I was in charge of art direction and visual design for the business plan of our magazine.
Purpose
Our purpose is rooted in advocating for sustainable shopping, and informing individuals on how they can continue to buy the fashion they want, in good conscience. With Vancouver at our heart, we are community-driven, showcasing members of our community on our blog, and featuring a sustainability-savvy reader in our magazine each month.
Concept
Twine magazine is primarily a digital-first publication, with a monthly digital magazine and a website. We also have a yearly magazine that mirrors our digital magazine’s content, made from 100% recycled paper, and a plantable paper section. In creating a balance between the new and the re-used, our brand demonstrates its dedication to promoting environmental sustainability over excessive consumption.
Target audience
Our target audience is women, age 18 to 35, living in Vancouver, BC. Their consumer values are: sustainability, nature, trends, technology, recreation, social media, clothes and fashion. In terms of brands, they would want options that are trendy, good quality, and environmentally friendly, as they are conscious of their environmental impact.
Design concept & nameplate
It is important to us at Twine that the visual concept of the magazine reflects the brand’s tone and values. The color palette is both feminine and warm which makes the reader feel welcome. The blues have a hint of green to reflect environmentalism, recycling, and the earth. The colors work together in harmony to give the magazine a very relaxed and simplistic tone. Simplicity is a key element in our design as sustainable fashion relies on it; it is not about consuming an abundant amount of unnecessary factory-made clothing but instead buying only what is needed and ethically made. This clean and minimalist look is carried throughout the entirety of Twine Magazine and the website.
After defining the art direction, I designed our nameplate to convey our support of using sustainable materials to make fashionable clothing options, as the line through our nameplate, makes it appear as though it is wrapped in twine. When choosing the fonts for our magazine, I decided to use serif fonts because our competitors do the similar and we wanted our design concept to be professional and relative for our loyal audience who is equally as committed to sustainable products as we are. As our magazine is new to magazine marketing, clarity of type of magazine can help to know our niche and what kind of commerce Twine is targeting. That is why I added the "sustainable fashion magazine" to the nameplate of our magazine.
Sample magazine
The majority of our content is produced online, which aligns with our theme of sustainability, while our yearly printed issues will provide us the opportunity to reach more of our target audience, and draw more attention to our online magazine and social media accounts.
Through our events and community webpages, we are able to connect with our readers in way that our competitors do not, by featuring community members in our digital magazine and on our website, as well as promoting local events. We also focus on creating a balance between suggesting sustainable fashion options, and presenting alternatives to buying brand new items. Our focus on promoting sustainable options that are not “luxury” products, positions our magazine as more inclusive, and more grass-roots orientated than our competitors.
I designed magazine cover and spread before when I was learning visual design courses, so I was following that rule at the initial step. However, I found that in a publishing course, design needs to be better combined and fit the business model more than aesthetics. The first iteration was only a cover photo, nameplate and price code on it, which has less information. Even there already are some magazines using the simplistic style for their cover, while as a new brand, we haven't got any audiences. Promoting and clarifying the magazine's content on the cover is crucial, especially for a new brand.
A panel of publishing professionals at the end of the course recognized that our magazine is obvious outstanding out of others in retail store as shown above and convey the concept of our brand clearly by visuals.
Reflection
Magazine design in the publishing course is quite different because visual is not only what I need to consider. As magazine publishing need to think about the competitor, revenue and other marketing aspects into my design. If I wanted to design something that is outstanding attractive than other brands, the visual should well cooperate with other features and advertisements. The content and departments of our magazine are considered to promote our brand and reach more readers. Besides, researching the competitors and deciding a narrow niche is vital at the beginning before a visual design, which helped us to know marketing and what could help our brand get more readers when launching.