Information
This Interview Magazine project was a practice in patience, long-distance art direction, design fundamentals, the creation of body copy, and following brand standards. This project required me to manage a group of artists, the subject, and stylists from different cities to execute it.
Problem
This was a class project that was designed to have us play two roles. It required us to be the art director as well as the lead designer in charge of creating a cover story with two spreads in the style of a national magazine that would spotlight an artist that we know. Body copy was not necessary but would be worth extra credit. Research and organization are key to successfully completing this project. The deliverables were a cover and two spreads.
Solution
As the designer, I researched Interview magazine's design standards and applied them to my design. I also researched the theme of the interview by reading several issues. This provided me with a template to design my project. My finished product followed the standards that Interview created, as well as designing a project that fulfilled the requirements of the assignment.
As art director, I needed to find an artist to spotlight, a prop stylist to set the scene, a photographer to take the photos, and a copywriter to create the interview questions. I decided to focus on Sam Bland, an artist and prop stylist living in Philadelphia, PA. Because he fulfilled two roles, this helped reduce the number of individuals I was responsible for directing. The photographer lived in Brooklyn, NY. I was in Milwaukee, WI, and could not leave because of my classes. My solution was to submit my sketches and initial directions to the East Coast group. A time was set for the shoot, an interview was conducted, and we were ready to make the magic happen. Because I was in Milwaukee, I had to have faith in my team to follow my plan. We used Google Meet so that we could communicate in real time. Although there were some technical issues, everything came together perfectly, and the finished product is below.
Above: the cover concept and it's mockup. Two two-page spreads and their mockup.
Above: a street advertisement for the issue.
