Software used:
Software used:
Branding & Identity:
Branding & Identity:
Message Journal Website:
This was a live brief, set by Message Journal - a journal that publishes a range of academic papers and commissioned essays around the discussion of visual communication design, research, artefacts and practice. Message Journal were initially limited to being a physical publication, but with this brief, were wanting to expand and create an online identity for themselves. This consisted of a brand design for Message Journal as well as designing multiple webpages, including pages for two of their published articles.
As a brand, Message aim to explore and challenge the boundaries of design and visual communication, which is something that I wanted to convey through their identity design, as this was one of their USP's (Unique Selling Point) as a brand. Shown are some initial word mark concepts as sketches, primarily visualising the challenging of boundaries, but also some that visualise expanding and growth.
Below are some digitised experiments stemming from these sketches. I decided on using Bebas Neue for the typography to convey a bold yet professional tone of voice, and a bright cyan colour for the brand as this was a prominent colour throughout the printed editions of Message Journal, and it visualises Message's bold, experimental outlook on design.
This is the final word mark design that I chose to use for Message Journal's brand. I felt that this design was able to convey the journal's boundary-pushing, outside-the-box thinking and the growth and expansion of the brand in a simple yet professional way. It was important for the final design to have a clean, professional look to it as the journal's audience are academics.
The 'About' page of the website design is also shown, visualising how the identity within the word mark was applied.
The page has an off-white background colour, as pure white on a screen can be difficult for viewers to look at for a long period of time. I also utilised a layered-paper texture within the visuals, such as the map infographic at the bottom of the page, linking the website back to the journal's beginning as a physical publication.
I utilised the extended lines throughout the website, visualising movement and progression whilst helping to direct the user's eyes across the page and toward text, imagery, etc. Additionally, the bright cyan colour also allowed me to create a sense of hierarchy by highlighting important features, making them stand out against the background. For example, on the map infographic, the little pinpoint icons showing where Message Journal's team are based are in cyan, drawing more attention to them. This map infographic was created in Adobe Illustrator.
Below are the page designs for the two articles from a previous Message Journal publication. "Night Light" was an article on a nighttime dance project by students at the University of Texas, incorporating light to help visualise bicycle safety. I used a dark background to incorporate this nighttime theme into the page design, which worked nicely with the monochrome imagery. The second article was "What if This Becomes That?", which was an article on the creative strategies behind the use of interpretive typography. This topic allowed me to be creative with the typography, and I used two colours to replace the absence of imagery, keeping the page interesting. These two pages both used the same extended lines to direct the user through the page. These pages were all connected together in Figma.
The two pages can be seen animated as scrollable pages at the top of the page.
