Ari Magazine
Role
Founder. Publication Design/Editorial. Creative Direction. Branding
Ari Magazine is my unique, annual-based magazine that serves as a contemporary visual publication that plays with layout and design. While it can be seen as an experimental and graphic design work, the content is curated to be most relevant and informative about the local community of Chicago. In this issue, it explores the efforts of small businesses, non-profits, and artist sustain communities through their work.
The places and interviews are curated around a theme, so there is a consistent interest amongst the fluidity of the visual elements and content. This project plays a crucial part in representing my identity as a designer, as well as how I want to impact my community through my work.
Ari publication aims to be an informative magazine while being a contemporary piece and show experiment design. This is displayed through layout, typography, and photography. Through my creative direction for this project, I wanted to emphasize on the idea of print and physicality. In an age of digital dystopia and social distancing, Ari Magazine promotes community and communication through design. I challenged this through mostly interview-based content where I personally talked with people in these organizations.
Most of the digital images were taken by me on my visits to the places, and each story introduces the organization or subject through a summary and a polaroid. Polaroids are sacred in photography because their instant-images are a reminder that time is a singular plane, and moments exist once. While images help capture these moments, polaroid’s only let us revisit these moments by holding and looking at the polaroid in person. This idea is reinforced through the design by only allowing the magazine to be printed, and not online. The read of the publication is experiential and requires effort, just as the ideas and causes of the organizations and subjects.
