#magazine design

One of my first graphic design projects in college was to design a magazine cover, table of contents, department page, and feature spread. Purely fictional work and we had full control over the subject. 

Well I created a music magazine and had a picture of Hanson in the table of contents and on the department page. And of course if i looked back on it now I’d probably rip it apart and laugh at it’s hideousness. But despite that, I still loved that project and learned a lot from it. 

And I loved doing it and it was the first moment of my career that I can remember where work didn’t feel like work.

My skills and tastes have come a long way since that day 9.5 years ago (Hi, I feel old), but one thing remains the same. I still love magazine (or any book-type of page layout) design—but it took a long ass time to get to this realization.

I’ve worked in the same office for five years (also my first real job aside from a short term internship). Aside from that I’ve done the rare freelance work, fictional school work, or personal projects usually in the form of a book.

It’s taken the full 9.5 years to realize the kind of work I like doing the most.

I’ve tried identity and branding. I’ve tried illustration. Iconography. Advertising. Hand lettering. I’ve dabbled in all these things and I can do them decently enough. But I don’t love them like I love being faced with a mess of content that needs to be organized into a 20-page, 40-page, or 60-page book or magazine. It stresses me out but in a good way and motivates me more than any other type of design. You could say I work better under pressure.

And it shows. The thing that you like the most you will be the best at—because you will want to be the best at it. Find your craft, find what you love to do the most, and do more of that thing. 

I’d rather be really good at and love doing one thing than be kinda good at lots of things and kinda like doing them.

Yesterday I came back from Bologna Children’s Book Fair and wanted to share some thoughts and photos while it still feels fresh.

I planned the fair together with a colleague, a publisher of a children’s magazine Maki who also lives in the Netherlands so I had a good company from the moment I said goodbye to Sam.

We arrived at the fair on the second day which was a bit of a shame because most interesting things were happening on the first two days and everyone at the fair was still full of energy (on the last day stands were half empty and people very tired and ready to go home). Next year I will definitely plan my trip around first 3 days. 

The fair was a huge inspiration nevertheless and I got to talk to some of my favourite publishers and meet in person with some illustrators I only knew via internet. I also received a good amount of feedback from editors and art directors about the new book I’m working on, it still has to sink in but I’m looking forward to seeing how it can help me in the further development.

We also showed the first issue of Maki minimag to a couple of publishers, designers and illustrators and the reactions were great! I was very proud of my colleague for doing such tremendous work pretty much single-handedly and also happy to see that people liked pieces of the magazine I illustrated.

Between appointments we mostly strolled through the fair to discover new things and get inspired. Here are some books I especially liked:

“I can’t see” by Tsai Chao Lun from Taiwan tells the story of what it’s like to be blind and the difficulties encountered when venturing outdoors. The reader is guided through a world of darkness and shown some of the coping strategies put into practice by the unsighted. By depicting the world in unremitting black and white, the author helps the reader overcome initial disorientation, taking the story to its surprising ending. This book got a special mention award for disability.

I don’t know the name of this book (it was only in Korean) but it felt very special to me. It tells a story about a little boy and a bird he kept in a cage. What I got from reading only the illustrations (unfortunately I can’t read Korean which is especially sad because my favourite stands were Korean!) is that the boy was obviously fond of the bird and wanted to be a good friend and take care of it but at some point in the story the bird dies as these species of birds were never meant to be encaged. I felt a little nostalgic about my childhood when I used to find injured or lost animals in the forest and in hope of saving them I brought them home. Unfortunately I couldn’t save most of them because they were wild animals and bringing them home wasn’t the best idea :( I remember crying so hard each time and not understanding why did they have to die even though I did my best to look after them… I can’t be sure of course if the book was about what I thought it was but in any case I believe these sort of topics are very valuable to young children.

This book is called “Grandma” by Jessica Shepherd and is published by Child’s play. I saw it right before my meeting with the publisher and I ended up in tears when I showed up to my appointment. It’s a story about a boy and his grandma who’s getting old and some things have to change but not their love and relationship with each other! Later on she moves to a new “home” where people with dementia could have special care. The story is told from a perspective of a little boy Oscar. It’s written in a touching and honest way yet simple for kids to understand subjects like getting old, ill, etc. Even though I wasn’t particularly fond of the illustrations, the story deeply touched me. My own grandparents are getting quite old and for modern kids it’s a relevant topic too since people are having babies much later in life and loosing a grandparent when you’re still young isn’t that uncommon. 

And here are some  photos I took of the things I liked:

I visited Old Lion publishing from Lviv, Ukraine to see and buy “War that changed Rondo” by one of my favourite Ukrainian design duo Agrafka 

And here is the winner of the illustrator’s exhibition of 2016: Juan Palomino from Mexico. 

This is my colleague Patricia in our Bologna flat

And finally this is me at the airport slightly annoyed (although you can’t see it) about “make your hand luggage one piece” rule but very happy about the trip! The beautiful handmade fanny bag for art supply was made by my friend and illustrator Olga Ezova-Denisova who I also met in person at the fair for the very first time. 

It’s probably one of my longest posts ever! I’m not a fan of writing proper posts but I really wanted to document this experience. Thank you Patricia for being the best travel companion a person could wish for!