During the pandemic, it was easy to forget about the beauty present in areas we couldn’t immediately experience. Consequently, as travel started to become a viable option again, I felt it was necessary to remind audiences about why they should travel to foreign destinations like Japan—a location that’s also on my travel list. This led me to create a travel magazine that highlighted several aspects of Tokyo’s scenery and culture.
In Adobe InDesign, I created a grid layout that would provide an orderly structure for the images and articles about Japan that I researched. Once the images and copy were finalized, I chose a magazine theme that combined pastel and dark colors; this resulted in a contrasting day and night aesthetic that I found was reflective of Japan’s cultural prioritization of nature and nightlife. This theme not only inspired more dynamic page layouts, but also increased viewer retention and produced a clearer visual hierarchy. This is because I was able to incorporate images with strong color contrast and manipulation of scale into my grid layout that, when paired with my background colors and font style, guided readers through the magazine’s text without sacrificing legibility or space.
