Lonesome

Typography III

Summer 2020

Lonesome is a magazine exploring the interconnectivity of the self and nature, sharing stories of solo travelers, those who live alone in nature, and mindfulness. My task was to create this messaging through a logotype, standards, and layout. Sparked by the idea of isolation, a high contrast display script was fragmented into pieces to create the logotype, and both friction and negative space were explored extensively.

Objective: Create a magazine identity

Sparked by the idea of isolation, I fragmented a high contrast display script into multiple pieces per letterforms to create the logotype and kickstart the magazine identity.

To bring in elements of the wordmark, I focused on the nuances of curved shapes in the letterforms and contrast. Canto Pen proved a suitable typeface for titles, headers and quotes as it paralleled many of the curves and calligraphic reference of the logotype. The descending bottom of the L was additionally brought in as the tombstone for articles as a slight curved wave, similar to the tilde (~) which can mean “similar to” or “about,” referencing the magazine’s goals of showing connection and relation.

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Application: Developing Lonesome's first issue

My goal from the start was prioritizing powerful imagery, a flexible grid, legibility in precise microtypography, and nuances related to travel - encouraging excitement in reading the articles.

Halfway through development, a breakthrough occurred where I began to experiment with color and greater type manipulation to create a moment of excitement to begin each article. Justified type and nuances such as utilizing coordinates as a graphic element that would also include the page number began to bring moments of purposeful tension. Upon discovering Bernard Chen, a photographer who travels with one of the women written about in the second article, almost all the imagery changed to use his work.