SPECTER MAGAZINE.
SPECTER MAGAZINE.
EDITORIAL
SCHOOL PROJECT / DESIGN EXPLORATION
Photography Credits: Unsplash
Illustration Credits: Brittany Tena
Copy Credits: Several Authors, modified by Brittany Tena
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Design a magazine on a topic or theme of choice. The magazine consists of designing layouts for three separate magazine articles in three different ways: one typographic, one illustrative, and one photographic.
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This magazine, Specter, is a paranormal magazine, designed to give paranormal-lovers a thrilling and eerie reading experience, both in its reading content and overall design.
What originally started as a school project for an editorial design course is now a refreshed take on each of the three articles, with the aim being a more polished and captivating look-and-feel for each article.
Typographic Article
The article for the typographic spread is about the history of the Ouija board, titled The Strange and Mysterious History of the Ouija Board written by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie. The article gives a brief overview of the paranormal game's history, it’s influence on culture and entertainment, and questions surrounding the idea of the supernatural. Designing the look-and-feel of this article was aimed at visualizing elements from a historic Ouija board using similar typographic stylings, and creating a layout that felt mysterious and eerie in order to relate to the subject matter.
Illustrative Article
For the magazine's illustrative article, the spreads illustrate the historical accounts in an article by Mark Pickering, titled The Poltergeist That Plagued a North London House. The written piece explores the infamous 1977 paranormal case of the Enfield haunting in England, with a family—particularly a young girl named Janet—allegedly being terrorized by paranormal forces in their own home. The article recounts these claims through the experiences of Guy Lion Playfair, a man who investigated the case, with illustrations bringing these events—and what they say was happening to Janet—to a thrilling reading experience.
Photographic Article
The magazine's photographic article is a personal account of NBA player Tim Hardaway Jr.'s paranormal experience at the haunted Skirvin Hotel, titled I'm Not 100% Sure Ghosts Aren't Real. Hardaway explains questionable occurrences that he says happened during his stays in this haunted hotel. Since the article is casually written through his perspective, including hand-written type throughout the article helps to make it feel just as personal. The use of sourced photographs is meant to visualize the unsettling atmosphere of this historic hotel through visuals and effects that evoke ghostly presences and surveillance-like qualities.
