PROJECT: DAZED Magazine Concept (2023)
PROJ. OVERVIEW: Emulate Dazed magazine's design strategy and anatomy to create a conceptual next issue for the brand.
TOOLS USED: Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop
BACKGROUND: Dazed is a progressive British magazine that has established itself as a culture bible for the modern youth. Celebrating music, fashion and entertainment, showcasing art, platforming risk takers and featuring powerful news articles. The brand’s message is empowering the global youth through creativity.
PROCESS: I began by conducting extensive research on Dazed to develop a strong foundational understanding of the publication. This research evaluated all the key areas necessary to ensure design accuracy including their target audience, brand values, and measuring their magazine's technical specifications (margins, grids, pagination, etc.) using a physical copy of their most recent issue as reference. As Dazed is a progressive British magazine, I featured all contemporary UK content within the issue including a cover story on the music artist Raye, a profile feature on the UK Drill scene, and a mini feature on a smaller UK artist on the rise named Eaves Wilder. These stories were authored using the intelligence of Chat GPT.
EXECUTION: Dazed is a creative magazine catered to the youth and therefore their stories rely primarily on bold full-page imagery. Their type treatment or lack thereof, is a purposeful decision to reflect the progressive and risk-taker nature of the Dazed brand. This idea is something I carried into my design as it is an important reflection of the brand and a unique characteristic that sets them apart from their competitors. My design strategically features a lot of dynamic full-page imagery reminiscent of Dazed’s art direction and includes creativity within the image treatments where applicable for additional visual interest. For instance, my inclusion of overlaying hand drawn graffiti on the profile feature images; adding texture to visually communicate the ruggedness associated with the Drill scene.
