Process

After 3 semesters on the design team of Iris, I became the lead designer in Fall of 2025. 


The Client
I designed magazine branding for Iris, a biannual literature and arts magazine publishing student prose, poetry, and artwork at James Madison University. 
The Problem
Each issue of Iris adopts a new color palette and typographic look to match the tone of its submissions. Additionally, the design scheme needed to be simple enough that my team of junior designers could utilize it without much trouble.

So, the questions I was asking myself while designing were:
How can I capture the spirit of Iris through graphic design?
How can I create a design that’s unique and memorable, while still taking a backseat to the contents of the magazine?
Can my junior designers easily pick up this style to ensure a cohesive magazine?
The Process

Picking a Direction
My work began by analyzing the submissions with the editorial team. We discussed overarching themes, and compiled all the artwork into one space in order to search for colors, craft techniques, and graphic appeal.

Nature Ocean, Whispering woods/green
Familial/friendship
Friends dying
Loss
solitary
Angst
Coming of age, loss of innocence


Adjectives
Mature
Tactile
Artistic
Natural


Based on that information, I created a few options for the editorial team to pick from:
(show options)

We narrowed it down to these two, and landed on the following selection
(show final piece, and explain reasoning behind type/colors)

My Solutions
The most important part of Iris is the student-submitted work, so incorporating student artwork as a motif through the magazine creates a more personal touch and keeps the focus on the artwork.

To make sure that my team didn’t struggle, I provided an InDesign template with the fonts and swatches already added, as well as a few images they could use as background texture.