Species is a conceptual independent magazine about wildlife, conservation, and the natural world built from scratch as a full publication design project. The brief wasn't just to lay out existing content: it was to conceive the magazine's visual identity, editorial structure, photography direction, and advertising strategy as a whole.
The layout system is built around legibility and image. A clean column grid keeps the editorial content accessible and unhurried, while full-bleed photography does the emotional work pulling the reader into each subject before the text begins.
All photography in the issue was shot by me, developed specifically to serve the editorial content of each spread rather than sourced from stock. Shooting for layout meant thinking about negative space, crop, and composition in relation to type before even opening InDesign.
Three full-page ads were designed for this issue; each one holding its own visual identity while maintaining the magazine's aesthetic. Advertising design inside editorial is its own discipline, the ad has to be persuasive enough to do its job without feeling like an intrusion on the reading experience.
Media Kit
A media kit was designed as part of the broader publication package; covering the magazine's design approach, format, and advertising opportunities. The exercise forced a useful shift in perspective: designing for readers and designing for advertisers are different problems, and the media kit is where both audiences have to be served simultaneously.
The full project comprises three content spreads, an index page, three full-page ads, and a media kit. A complete publication system designed, photographed, and produced start to finish.