Jacob McAdam
Product Designer
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Visual Design
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Book Design

International Relations Journal

Editorial journal design for the International Relations College of San Francisco State University.

Project Brief

Background & Objectives

Every year in the Spring the International Relations department at San Francisco State University publishes an online journal with the best papers selected from their graduate and undergraduate students. The International Relations Journal needed a new design to increase legibility, consistency, and digital accessibility.

My Role & Stakeholders

I collaborated with a fellow graphic designer with direction from an art director.

Skills & Tools Applied
Illustrator
InDesign
Photoshop

Sketches

The design process involved sketching out a few layouts and laying out a single article in various comprehensives. My teammate focused on cover designs while I focused on typography, headers, footers, bylines, and body copy.

sketchbook
Sketchbook of ideas

Iterations

cover pages
Front cover concepts

Final Journal Design

The final journal design had an intense red and white color scheme, yet allowed the reader to move through the text comfortably. Headers and bylines allow for a clean and quick navigation between pages.

journal page spreads with cover page
A spread opener featuring a student's essay
journal page spreads
Spreads from the Journal

The final journal design needed to be delivered for digital-only formats. As a result the document's typographic layout was set in a single column to enforce a contiguous reading experience, which means the user wouldn't have to jump around pages as they read.

This journal was designed in association with SFSU Design Working Group for the International Relations department at San Francisco State University.

Portrait of Jacob McAdam looking into the distance with cubes of light behind him.
project by Jacob McAdam

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