The Gentlewoman
Visual Identity + Publication Design
Reimagining
This brief challenged designers to redesign the visual identity of an existing publication, including specifically a cover, a feature spread and a webpage design. As publication design is my favorite, I was all over this. I immediately picked an issue of The Gentlewoman from my shelf.
The Gentlewoman typically boasts fairly organized and minimalist layouts. Their designs rely heavily on typography—primarily Futura—still life photography and portraits, and color block. While I love a type-and-solid-bold-color-driven brand (ahaha), I decided to try to take The Gentlewoman out of its “comfort zone” by trading order for disruption.
The result was a cut-and-ripped-paper collage style issue, featuring handwritten and drawn elements and an overstuffed cover.
Redesigned cover of the Spring and Summer 2016 issue featuring Kirsten Dunst.
Redesigned feature spread, featuring my handwriting and edited scans of ripped paper.
Article spread.
While the loud collages are the most obvious change, I focused on typography as well. Where one would generally find a clean sans serif on The Gentlewoman’s pages, I replaced with either my own handwriting—intentionally stylized to be unpolished—or a rounded and stylized serif typeface called Roca.
Redesigned logotype, AKA my stylized handwriting.
Original cover.
Redesigned web homepage.
Ripping paper is very therapeutic.