Marquette Journal Magazines

During the 2023-24 academic year, as the Design Chief for the Marquette Wire, a significant challenge I encountered was leading the creative vision and design for The Marquette Journal, our bi-annual student magazine. Each semester required the establishment of a distinct creative theme to ensure a cohesive and impactful publication. This required not only developing these themes, such as "Written in the Stars" for Fall 2023 and "Playing with Fire" for Spring 2024, but also effectively managing and inspiring a team of student designers with diverse skill sets to contribute high-quality work under tight deadlines. Furthermore, translating these themes into comprehensive design systems that maintained brand consistency across over 60 pages, while seamlessly integrating student-generated content and ultimately ensuring an error-free, print-ready final product for campus-wide distribution, presented considerable creative and logistical hurdles.
To address these multifaceted challenges, I as Design Chief proactively collaborated with the Journal Manager to conceptualize and finalize the central creative theme for each semester. Following this, I developed detailed design systems for each magazine encompassing typography, color palettes, graphic elements, and layout templates to provide a structured yet flexible framework for the design team. I then built and led a team of student designers, fostering a collaborative environment through regular meetings, clear communication of the thematic vision and design system, and providing constructive critique on their work. My role also involved overseeing the integration of student photography and written stories into the publication. To bring our ideas to life, my team utilized the Adobe Creative Suite to contribute to the visual execution, and in the end I thoroughly proofread the entire magazine prior to collaborating with the printing vendor for final production.
As a direct result of these actions, I successfully led the creative direction and design for two distinct and thematically cohesive editions of The Marquette Journal. The "Written in the Stars" and "Playing with Fire" magazines effectively captured their intended tones and provided a unifying visual experience for readers. I successfully managed and mentored a team of student designers, fostering a collaborative environment that yielded high-quality design work. Ultimately, we produced two professionally designed 62-page magazines that showcased student talent and were distributed to approximately 1,500 students across campus each semester. Both editions of the Journal were also made available digitally, extending its reach. The “Written in the Stars” publication can be found here. Through this experience, I gained invaluable skills in creative leadership, project management, and collaborative design within a student media organization.