The Miami Student Magazine, Vol. 17

Phase 1: Budget Lines

Before getting assigned my story for the semester, all the designers met to review budget lines. After reading through each one, each designer voted on their top three. A day later, I was assigned the story, “Keeping classics alive: Thinking about the Roman Empire everyday.” I began my moodboard based on this budget line:

“This story is a profile on a classical studies history professor who is extremely dynamic. It will include broader theme of humanities disappearing at Miami, and how professors are working to combat this and keep subjects – like the classics – alive and interesting. The professor, Dr. Steven Tuck, teaches as both a history and classical studies professor, and he does awesome outside research on Pompeii (which has a National Geographic documentary coming out!!) I have a solid rough draft now, but I’m planning on updating it from last semester and adding a few more sources.”

Phase 2: Moodboard

Based on my budget line, I wanted my designs to feel academic and focus on antiquity. I focused on using a muted, earthy color palette and rough textures.

Phase 3: First Draft

By the time I started my first draft design, the writer for my story gave me her first story draft. I made sure to read it a few times and then started my process.

Phase 4: Second Draft

Changes:
– Made the title text more playful.
– Made the text wrap closer to images.
– Minimized the decorative borders.
– Moved the pull quote to one page to improve readability.

Phase 5: Final Draft

Changes:
– Rearranged the title text.
– Adjusted image sizes.
– Changed the pull quote.
– Added texture to the title text to make it blend with the paper texture better.

Phase 6: Poster Page

The Miami Student Magazine likes to include fun posters that represent each story. Not every story got a poster design, so it was exciting to get asked to design one for my story. I included images of Roman columns and the flower from the first page of my story. I also added the old paper texture I used in the story to make it more recognizable.