The assignment was to redesign an existing magazine and demonstrate clear typographic and editorial design skills. Creating a new, refreshed visual identity was of utmost importance when redesigning a magazine, which included a new masthead, grid, type pairings, imagery (photography and illustration), folio, departments, a feature story, etc.

When it came down to choosing a magazine, I felt that I could bring new life publication Psychology Today, in order to make it more visually appealing to a younger (millennial) audience. The content within the magazine is excellent and my goal was to make the overall look and feel to match that. For the covers, I created a masthead that was reminiscent of their current bold, condensed typeface, but instead choosing to stack it in three lines (psych/ology/today). I also designed to knockout the masthead from a heavy black bar across the top, to expose the cover image behind it and create a nice location for the cover lines. As for imagery, I chose photography and illustrations that would be striking and thought provoking, as the content of the magazine is as such. The magazine deals with a wide range of topics such as sexual assault, mental side-effects of internet usage, and emotional balance, so choosing photography and illustrations that were striking and thought-provoking was extremely important. Giving the magazine a clear grid and sense of visual/typographic hierarchy allowed the content and design to work harmoniously together, aiming to evoke thought and emotion from the reader. Through many months of sketching, iterating, class critiques, tweaking, and reimagining, I came to the final result of my Psychology Today refresh.

Overall, I’m very happy with the final result. I took a lot of risks with this magazine that pushed me outside my comfort zone, including the masthead and feature story. But luckily, I feel that those risks paid off in the end, leaving a unique and visually appealing redesign of Psychology Today’s iconic publication.