Design

Our Design Editor spearheaded our publication's branding at the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year and our Leadership Team collaboratively made decisions on font, colors, and the design of our new logo. Our team put lots of thought into having the color choices, font, and overall design reflect the Greek theme of the iliad program. Click on the photo to see our logo and reasonings for each element.

One of the biggest decisions the Leadership Team makes is the Design Theme of the magazine. This involves picking the font, colors, and brainstorming spread ideas and cover art. It took several weeks to collaboratively narrow down our theme but we were thrilled with the outcome. Above is the initial theme presentation that we came up with. 

As the Social Media Coordinator, I was constantly designing posts. I primarily did this using the Canva website. Canva was a great introduction to the possibilities of design. I came up with a cohesive, aesthetically pleasing Social Media design theme and chose the fonts and colors that I used consistently throughout the year. Above is a slideshow of several designs I made using Canva for social media. 

In collaboration with our adviser, the iliad Leadership Team is in charge of creating the annual Creative Writing Project for our Media Group which involves designing the requirements PDF using InDesign. I spearheaded this and genuinely enjoyed getting more experience using InDesign. Click on the photo to view the  page PDF I designed. 

Our adviser challenged the iliad Leadership Team to design spread templates at the start of the year to get experience with InDesign and to have templates to use in the production of the magazine. Above is a photo of me and my 2021-22 Co-Editor Luna Reichert designing a spread for the magazine. 

At the beginning of my second year as Editor-in-Chief, I designed the curriculum for the other members of the Editorial Board who were joining the production class. This required designing a presentation of the graded work and checklists for the requirements of each assignment, which is linked with the photo.

In my first year as Editor, we added the position of Design Editor to our Editorial Board. With a full time designer, I was no longer in charge of all designs as Editor. My design responsibilities transitioned to me having the role of an editor, suggesting improvements for all designs including submission posters, business cards, stickers, and all magazine spreads. This year, the Design Editor and I are dividing the design of our magazine spreads equally.

Before my second year as Editor-in-Chief, I knew that I still had improvements in my design skills I wanted to make before making the 2023 magazine. I decided to sign up for the CSPA Design Camp where I was able to get individual instruction on my designs and feedback from Jenny Dial Creech, an accomplished and experienced designer and journalist. Above is an example spread design template I made at the camp.