CMYK Publication

Behance | https://www.behance.net/gallery/62617249/ADDY-Award-Winning-CMYK-Publication

Portfolio | http://rachelpeckdesign.com/project_cmyk.html

I was chosen as a co-designer for the 2016 edition of the Canisius Quadrangle Literary Magazine. With this responsibility, I was asked to produce a design proposal for the publication according to the vision that editor presented us for 64th volume of the publication.

Understanding this vision, I determined the theme to be “organized chaos” with an overall look that suggested creativity. We were encouraged to use hand lettered style and decorative typefaces with colors that were bright, but not necessarily neon bright.

I used a very fun and decorative font, Homestead, for the cover. This font becomes a graphic element in itself. Within the book, I used a thinner handwriting font, Amatic, with a blocky, bold font, Blackout, to create contrast in the headlines. I set the actual stories in Avenir Next. Since these are the art on their own, I believed that they didn’t need much extra embellishment.
The graphic shapes used appear organic and chaotic. Though the shapes themselves are simple, they are designed in a way that suggests creativity. The shapes create a reference to primary shapes that we learn as children that serve as the building blocks of creation.

I used a pure CMYK color scheme. Since this was the proposal for a printed publication, the pure print colors appear very vibrant within a printed piece. Their contrasting nature creates a cohesive and interesting design that will catch people’s eye from afar and inspire them to pick up the publication and explore it further. The CMYK scheme is fun, energetic and bolsters the overall feeling of creativity.

This design embodies the notion of “organized chaos” for me. As a bit of a perfectionist, I like things to be very exact and geometric. While this maintains some aspects of that mindset it remains organic and playful, promoting creativity and the “organized chaos” that exists within the minds of artists.