Open magazine featuring a photo of a burning sculpture of a tank with flames and smoke, and text reading 'PEACE' partially visible.

Issue No. 1

Project Title: Issue No. 1

Components: Photographs, Printed Case Study, Live Exhibition

Software Used: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign

Typefaces Used: Lincoln Electric, Chamfer Gothic Ludlow, ITC Avant Garde Gothic

Team: Myself, Ashton Crochet, Rhena Johnson, Kennedy Roush

My roles: Publication design, copy writing, typesetting, research

My team and I were tasked with creating a publication based on the work of a group of designers from around the 1960s. The collection had little in common visually, but most of them did seek to address a social issue in their work. The title, Issue No. 1, carries a double meaning as it’s both the first of its kind and dedicated to unaddressed social issues.

A black booklet or magazine with the title 'Issue No. 1.' The cover features the words 'Equality,' 'Unity,' and 'Peace' at the bottom.
Open photo book showing images of a small fire on a rock, with a mobile lighter and burning paper, set outdoors with blurred trees in the background.
Open Issue No. 1 publication spread with a photo of Buckminster Fuller, with text about him and his work on design and the geodesic dome.
An open magazine placed on a white surface, showing several pages and a black page with white text about George Lois.
Dedication page with black and yellow design, text about the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum and the 1960s MOD designers exhibit, and the Cooper Hewitt logo.
A black spread with white text, showing a table of contents with chapters titled Equality, Unity, Peace, Architects, and Documentation, each with corresponding page numbers.

We chose to divide our publication according to what issue the designers were mostly focused on; inequality, social division, and war. We titled the sections according to the opposite of each problem, which is being strived for by our designers.

A sculpture of a balance scale on fire with green flames burning around it, outdoors on a rough surface with a blurred natural background.

Our visual identity was based around photography, wherein we 3D printed objects that represented the issues in question, and burned them to show the damage that leaving them unaddressed will cause. We also colored the flames themselves, to give each section a distinct visual identity. For the Equality section, we had a set of unbalanced scales, and the flame is green to represent corruption.

Illustration of a cartoon hedgehog with a speech bubble that says, 'No laws were broken in the making of this product.' Below, it says, 'Trust us, we checked.' In the background, light green color.
3D printed sculpture of a balance scale with a rust-colored finish and black strings holding golden platforms on each side, displayed on a white background.
Open Issue No. 1 publication spread with a photo of Archie Boston Jr., with text about him and his work on design and his contributions to changing the perception of black people in design.

Each designer has their own spread, explaining what their work was primarily about. The shapes, which are colored according to the color of the section’s flame, are made with cut paper that’s burned at the edges in the print version.

Open Issue No. 1 publication spread with a photo of Dorothy Hayes, with text about her and her work and advocacy for black designers.
Open Issue No. 1 publication spread with a photo of Emmet McBain, with text about him and his contributions to advertising and culture.
Open Issue No. 1 publication spread with photos of Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast, with text about them and their work as cofounders of Push Pin Studios.
Collage of various posters and artwork related to Black artists, culture, and social messages, including images of protest signs, portraits, and graphic design celebrating Black identity and expression.

At the end of each section, we dedicated a spread to showing a bit of the artists’ work. There isn’t much attention on this, since we wanted the focus to be on what we did, but it helps to get a sense of what we’re talking about in each designer’s individual spread.

Close-up of a small bonfire with bright green flames over a background of trees and outdoors.

And finally, we show a few more images of the flame itself.

A 3D printed sculpture of a balance, is on fire with flames engulfing it. The setting appears outdoors with a blurred natural background. The scale is mounted on a concrete surface, and the flames are bright yellow and green.
A light green background with humorous text about flames and Photoshop editing, accompanied by a simple line drawing of a hedgehog with exaggerated spines and a nose.
Close-up of a 3D printed wall sculpture engulfed in white flames.

The Unity section is represented by a burning brick wall, an object which divides people, and the flame is white, standing for isolation.

A 3D printed wall with brick texture, topped with small battlements, accompanied by a text explanation about the concept of tearing down barriers for unity, with process and flame ideas.
Open Issue No. 1 publication spread with photos of Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar, with text about them and their work on promoting global unity through design.
Open Issue No. 1 publication spread with a photo of Ikko Tanaka, with text about him and his work to blend traditional Japanese and modernist design practices.
Collage of six posters, including colorful airport luggage tags, abstract art with a face, and scientific diagrams.
A burning 3D printed brick wall with smoke and white flames rising from the top, set against a blurred background of green foliage.
A miniature brick wall with flames resembling a castle battlement, burning on a stone surface outdoors.
A burning tank scultpure with red flames, ashes, and melted parts, on a surface with ash, with a blurred background of greenery.

The Peace section shows a burning tank, obviously associated with war, engulfed in flames that are red, the color of aggression.

Green 3D-printed tank sculpture with black details on white background, accompanied by text about peace concept, process, and symbolism.
Open Issue No. 1 publication spread with a photo of Yusaku Kamekura, with text about him and his contributions to Japanese design.
Open Issue No. 1 publication spread with a photo of George Lois, with text about him and his work for the Esquire magazine.
Open Issue No. 1 publication spread with a photo of Sister Corita Kent, with text about her and her work on blending religion with pop culture through design.
Collage of various colorful posters and artwork, including Olympic athletes from 1964 Tokyo Olympics, a sunflower with text, a rainbow-colored love stamp, a man with arrows in his body, and vibrant textual artwork emphasizing love and kindness.
A tank sculpture on fire outdoors with red flames engulfing the vehicle, on a surface with a green blurred background.
A collage of three images depicting a burning tank model with flames. The top left image shows the tank on a blurred outdoor background. The bottom left image shows the tank on a concrete surface with trees and foliage in the background. The right image is a larger close-up view of the tank with vivid flames against a blurred outdoor background.
A Bambui Lab X1-Carbon 3D printer with the cover closed, showing the interior mechanics and filament spools inside.

Not every designer we were assigned fit cleanly into a category, so we added a section for them, specifically those that were architects, and whose work matched our project because of its 3D nature.

Open Issue No. 1 spread about Minoru Yamasaki, describing his architectural work.
Open Issue No. 1 spread about Buckminster Fuller, describing his architectural work.
A man standing outdoors on a cracked asphalt surface, holding a camera, with trees and damage from a fallen tree in the background, during what appears to be late afternoon or early evening.
Open Issue No. 1 spread about Minoru Yamasaki, describing his photographical work.

Likewise, Brownjohn, who was best known as a photographer, is included with our documentation, because that was where photography was incorporated in our publication.

Page describing a testing process involving 3D printed sculptures and flame tests. The page features an image of a small opened car trunk filled with various items, a person wearing protective gear and gloves handling a tool outdoors near a concrete block, and a message about using lighter fluid to test burn sculptures.
Two images showing outdoor science experiments. The top left shows a lit candle on a cinder block with a squeeze bottle beside it. The bottom left features a person wearing gloves holding a small container with an unknown substance. The right image depicts a person in a red jacket pouring liquid from a plastic bottle onto a cinder block on a wet asphalt surface, with autumn leaves scattered around.
Close-up of a test burn creating a red flame.
Three designers standing outside near a black car with its trunk open on a wet parking lot, with trees in the background.
A person wearing a black leather jacket, safety goggles, a mask, and gloves is crouching while using a soldering iron on a small model tank that is on fire. The model tank is placed on a cinder block outdoors, with trees and bushes in the background.
Images from the final burning showing various sculptures before and after being burnt, as well as the fire blanket used.
The balance sculpture after being burned.
The wall sculpture after being burned.
The tank sculpture after being burned.

This section includes photos of the sculptures after burning, to convey the impact that a social problem has if it’s left unaddressed.

In addition, our team put together a physical exhibition, in order to ground our publication within a specific context; we imagine it would be given out at the entrance to explain the ideas behind the display.

Exhibition display with a black wall on the left containing white text and a corner of a room on the right showing a stone wall, a mirror with text reading 'What are you doing about it?', and clothes hanging above a white table with bottles and other items.
A dark room with black plastic sheeting hanging and covering the walls and ceiling, with colorful paper cutouts and glass shards hanging from a string across the space.
A collage of three images. The top left shows people, possibly at an event, moving in a dark room with warm lighting and a rustic stone wall. The bottom left features two people posing in an indoor space, one flashing a peace sign. The right image is a close-up of a hanging crystal-like ornament with red and green parts, reflecting light against a dark background.
A sign with the text "What are you doing about it?" in large white letters on a black background.

Process

Below are spreads from an early rough draft of the publication. It is formatted similarly, into color-coded sections, but visually it shares little in common with the final product. We ultimately agreed that this visual structure was too restrictive and had an academic feeling that didn’t match the bold nature of the project. Allocating only one page per designer was also judged to not be enough space.

A 3D printed sculpture of a balance scale, positioned against a light green background.
A split page layout with a pink background, featuring two columns of text and images. The left column highlights Yusaku Kamekura's name at the top, with images related to sports and Tokyo 1964 Olympics. The right column highlights George Lois's name at the top, with magazine covers and a photo of a man in shorts, holding a stick.
A pink background features a greenish-brown military tank on the left and a text box on the right with a red header and yellow abstract lines, the word "PEACE" in black, and placeholder text about concept, process, and flame.
A yellow background with abstract squiggle patterns at the top and the word 'DOCUMENTATION' in bold black letters. The page is divided into two sections: the left section titled 'Sculpting' contains a paragraph about using a Makerspace for sculpting, and the right section titled 'Test Burning' includes a paragraph about a class test on burning with cubes, along with three photos: one of a trunk filled with supplies, one of a person igniting a brick outdoors, and one of a burning brick on the ground with a small bottle beside it.