Role: Art Director, Designer
Medium: Print (Magazine Layout, Photography, Editorial Design)
Year: 2024
Medium: Print (Magazine Layout, Photography, Editorial Design)
Year: 2024
Project Overview
Business at Leeds is the annual magazine of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder, with 40,000 copies distributed to its extensive donor and alumni network.
As the Art Director for the 2024 publication of the magazine, Honey was responsible for crafting a cohesive visual identity that aligned with the school's core values and strategic vision. Working closely with photographers, writers, designers, and senior leadership, Honey managed the development of 20 articles over the 4-month production schedule from concept development and photo art direction to layout and final print execution.
Creative Process & Vision
Honey took a strategic approach to elevate the magazine's design by carrying forward elements from previous editions that had strong potential but needed refinement, namely a journalistic style of storytelling that placed subjects out in the world as active members of their community and industry, beyond the walls of the school. To further enhance the execution of this aesthetic, Honey researched and drew inspiration from publications that executed similar design strategies with great success. These sources of inspiration informed creative decisions while setting a new standard for the magazine's design.
Brand Guide
To ensure alignment across all contributors, Honey developed a comprehensive brand guide, which served as both a creative roadmap and a communication tool. This guide outlined key visual elements, including photography direction, type treatments, layout reference and color palettes, ensuring that the magazine maintained a cohesive identity throughout the lifecycle of the project and across dozens of collaborators.
In addition, the brand guide played a pivotal role in securing buy-in from senior leadership. By clearly articulating the magazine's creative vision, Honey was able to facilitate discussions around budget considerations and gain approval for important design and production decisions. The guide ensured that all stakeholders were aligned on both the creative direction and the resources necessary to bring the vision to life.
Challenges & Outcomes
The summer season of the academic calendar presented challenges in executing on primary photo art direction of placing faculty in active community and student environments. Honey circumvented this limitation by developing an "in your happy place" art direction for faculty portraits that prompted subjects to help brainstorm contextual environments where they spend a good deal of time and feel comfortable. Prompts included a sunny corner of their home, their favorite coffee shop, working outside in their garden, amongst their community, researching in the library, etc. Honey would loop in subjects on the visual intention by sharing portrait examples.
This strategy yielded contextual images in which subjects looked more comfortable and natural because they were in familiar environments and their unique choices helped illustrate personality, relatability, and authenticity.
Ultimately, Honey rallied despite a rigorous production schedule and limitations on availability to deliver art files for review and final submission, on-time and on-budget.
Successful Contextual Portraits
