DEV. Magazine
Overview
DEV. Magazine is a conceptual 28-page magazine focused on video game developers. Because there are already many magazines focused on video games, I sought to theme this magazine around the minds that created those video games.
The Process
Brainstorming and Research
When conceptualizing how I wanted DEV. Magazine to look, I looked at competitors such as PC Gamer, Game Informer, and Retro Gamer. These magazines were very similar in that they were all very image-heavy and use saturated colors a lot, which often made them visually overwhelming. They also almost always use figurative covers—putting a person or a character as the focus of the cover.
Left to right: PC Gamer, Game Informer, Retro Gamer
I decided to use a saturated color palette for DEV. Magazine. I also wanted to go in a more experimental direction and have text, images, and graphics consistently interact with each other throughout the magazine.
Moodboards of the direction I wanted to pursue with the magazine
Brand Identity
When conceptualizing the logo, I knew that I wanted something bold, strong, and straight to the point. Thus, I named the magazine "DEV." with a period and chose a font with a bold weight to encapsulate this idea of putting the developers first before their games. Keeping the magazine cover in mind, I adjusted the logo so that the individual letters would slot together cleanly within their negative space.
Logo iterations and final logo
Typography
I went with the Facit family for the headers and subheads to complement the boldness of the logo. Athelas was chosen for the body copy for contrast as well as high readibility.
Color
My color palette consisted of colors associated with video games (red, yellow, blue, etc.) so that the magazine would still have some ties to the industry without having to include actual video game elements.
Cover and Spreads
When planning out the cover and the inside spreads, I kept my experimental direction in mind and tried to come up with different options that featured interaction between image and type. The drafts that weren’t chosen for the cover ended up getting repurposed for the feature spreads. For the handwritten text, I placed text where the handwriting was going to be and then free-handed any writing and elements I needed for each spread.
Process of finalizing one of the spreads