Above: y=mx+b magazine project. Custom tote bag designed and screenprinted by Yelena Avanesova.

Above: A spread of Ryan Quigley’s well story, “The Future of Fashion,” from y=mx+b. Page through the whole magazine from Issuu below, or visit the website to order or download your own copy.

Using the research developed for the “+ 10 to 20” project, work together as a class to create a vibrant, compelling magazine about the future.

I will provide you with a grid and headline, body, and caption typefaces to use. (I offered Univers, Utopia, and Futura; the grid was the Case Da Abitare grid we studied in the first class.) The format will be A4. The name and title design for the journal will be develped during the course of the project.

You will be split into three five-person groups: FOB, Well, and BOB. These groups will be responsible for the development, initial design, and final production of their sections.

WEEK 1: A “lineup” is a list of what articles are appearing in a magazine, what they’re called, and who’s responsible for them. Each group should meet or email earlier in the week to come up with a list of articles they’d like to present in their section. If these sections include departments, they should be given slugs and structures as appropriate. In class, groups will be given an additional hour to meet and finalize their lineups before presenting to each other as a class. Groups should have first and second choices for stories in case there are conflicts. Lineups should be updated weekly and should eventually include slots for single- and double-page ads.

Every group should also brainstorm names for the entire magazine and present their ten favorites. These lists will be posted to the class blog.

On each group’s lineup, each article should be assigned a group member to manage it. This group member will handle the text editing, hed / dek / caption writing, photo editing, and page layout for their piece according to the grid provided.

WEEK 2: Pages are presented in small groups by each group and those responsible for them. Multiple drafts and sketches of each page are encouraged. A title is chosen by class vote.

WEEK 3: Pages are passed to another group for revision and refinement. FOB pages are passed to the Well group, the Well groups pages are passed to the BOB group, and the BOB group’s pages are passed to the FOB. These revisions are presented to the class.

WEEK 4: Pages are again passed to another group for revision and refinement. FOB pages are passed to the BOB, Well pages are passed to the FOB, and BOB pages are passed to the Well. These revisions are presented to the class along with the prior two revisions and a final direction is selected.

WEEK 5: Every member of the class presents 3 possible covers of their own design for review. Titles may be treated using “house” typefaces or custom lettering. Cover imagery is optional (type-only covers are also welcomed), and images may be drawn either from existing magazine content or new content that will be incorporated into the magazine the following week along with cover title treatment if desired.

WEEK 6: Pages go back to their original managers for production, who will add crops, bleeds, standard colors, hi-res art, etc to their pages. Untrimmed color printouts of these final pages along with 25% scale “minis” will be brought to class.

In addition, untrimmed color printouts and 25% scale “minis” of advertisements created during the “Object of desire catalog” project by each student will be brought in and collated into the magazine where ad pages have been held.

Above: Images from the y=mx+b Launch Party, including a few guests who paused with VIP Marty McFly to have their photos taken at the branded paparazzi wall.

LAUNCH PARTY: When the page order is finalized, students will work together to produce a launch party. Everyone should volunteer to take care of some aspect of the party: producing advance digital copies of the magazine, inviting people, posting to the blog about the project, taking photos at the party for the blog, making food / drinks to share with the class, decorating the classroom with blowups of the cover, etc.

Most importantly, several members of class should finalize the magazine into a PDF and printed version for my final review.

This assignment is from the class Publication Design: Dispatches from the Future.