Design Skills: Publication Design + Layout Design + Branding
Programs: Adobe InDesign + Adobe Illustrator
About the Project: Unsung Magazine is for music lovers and musicians. It is a magazine that showcases undiscovered talent and small artists from all genres. This specific feature, Danny Gatton, is a guitar player known as The Humbler. The feature includes type and symbols inspired by Gatton’s album covers and musical persona.
Research: My research for this project began with collecting examples of magazine publication design, specifically music related design. I took notice of the use of color and typography and how it works with the imagery. I then physically sketched ideas for masthead design and brainstormed the details of the magazine itself. The USP for this magazine is that it focuses on musicians that are undiscovered or not very famous. The goal is to create variety within the music industry and help artists gain recognition. Following this written research, I moved over to the computer and began brainstorming typefaces and masthead designs.
Drafts: As I continued to explore typeface choices and arrangements, I prioritized choosing typefaces that captured the feeling of a music magazine cover and utilized my visual research to make those determinations. I also started to play with color and imagery. For this magazine issue, I featured Danny Gatton, a very talented guitar player who died far too soon. I used inspiration from his album covers, specifically color and typography, to drive my design choices related to the magazine feature.
Deliverables: For the final deliverables, I shifted the vision for the magazine cover from my previous drafts. I focused bolder typography and simpler imagery to create less competition between the design elements. For the Danny Gatton Feature, I took inspiration from the typography of Danny’s Hot Rod Guitar album cover to be used as the main font in the feature, as seen on the title page. I used bold pops of red in the feature as a nod to the use of pops of warm colors such as yellow, red, and orange in Danny Gatton’s albums. The contrast between black and white photographs and pops of color captures the essence of timelessness of Danny Gatton’s talent and is a way to honor his work.
