North Star: A Basic Camping Guide
North Star Magazine Cover, Photoshop and InDesign 2023, 8.5 x 11"
I was thrilled when I was tasked with creating a magazine on any topic I desired (so long as it was appropriate of course) designed for the printing process and creating a digital copy. For my topic, I chose to design the magazine as a how to guide with the intention of sharing personal camping stories drafted from myself and my family members. I designed each page to industry standard in accordance to the project specifications and overall goal of developing a professional grade magazine.
Flat Plan Layout
The first thing I needed to do besides starting to gather assets or designing, I was to set an effective flat plan for the magazine and its contents. Luckily, I was able to use advertisements I had previously designed and I had some of the images and content fully planned out. I did end up changing the lay out for the ads and their overall placement to match traditional print magazines I had utilized as references.
Flat Plan Magazine
Company Branding and Magazine Cover
After researching other camping magazines, I began branding for the fictitious company North Star, which offers a magazine subscription of various camping guides. I created each logo using Illustrator. The star logo became the masthead since I always used to watch the stars when I camped as a child- I then updated it to have a glow based on peer feedback. I created the fire pit and the sticker decal as additional elements related to the brand.
Sticker Decal
Firepit Illustration
North Star Logo
North Star Logo Glow
Decals, logo, and illustrations
North Star Cover 1
North Star Cover Final
I started off designing this project which was meant to focus on having a typographical present cover which was a major point I was missing in the beginning of the production. I started to understand the importance of gutters, margins, spacing, hierarchy, and so many other important design principles meant for full printing. I cut the smoke, went with some different colors for the secondary typeface and masthead.
Advertisement and Image Updates
Beats Waterproof Ad
Old Ear Ad
Old Image of Camping Background
Campfire Pit Image
New Beats Camping Ad
I replaced the original ear advertisement as this was for a class and was not professional enough to keep. I also felt it some of the images used were not of high enough quality since they were older images. I also created an entirely new ad to replace the prior airplane ad as that file became corrupt.
Full Complete Magazine
Cover
Table of Contents
Letter from Editor
10 Pro Tips and Tricks
10 Pro Tips and Tricks 2
Campfire JPG
10 Pro Tips and Tricks 3
Advertisement
Q&A 1
Q&A 2
Driftstone River
Q&A 3
Advertisement 2
Interview 1
My family JPG
Interview 2
Interview 3
Small Articles 1
Small Articles 2
Advertisement 3
Full layout
This is the full listing of each page in the twenty page magazine featuring the cover, advertisements, and various images and icons. Each story was written fully by myself through several interview sessions with my family members, so all the text is actual writing and not filler. Each page was also designed with the intention of becoming both a digital magazine and meant for traditional printing processes.
