Magyar Kultúra is a monthly cultural magazine, now in its fourth year. Each issue focuses on a particular theme, exploring its different aspects. Articles on the theme are published in science, humanities and arts. On the fourth anniversary of the launch of the magazine, the editorial team felt it was time to modernise the image. I was given the task of redesigning the magazine from the inside out.
The first element I've redesigned was the logo. My goal was to make a simpler logo, which, apart from being different, is also somewhat related to the previous logo.
For this design, I've used Roch Modrzejewski / ROHH's "Gigafly Headline Demi Bold" font. The intention was to create a look that was elegant, friendly and a bit unusual.
Of course, we looked at a lot of logo variations. It had to be clear, readable, but not too wordy.
Than, we decided to make the newspaper smaller than before. We reduced the size from A4 (210 x 295 mm) to a much more reader-friendly size (200 x 260 mm). The reduction not only improved usability but also shifted the feel of the magazine in the desired friendlier direction.
I use a different colour palette for each issue. The colours are determined by the theme of the issue and the photos used. I was looking for bright, vibrant colours that work well on dark and white backgrounds.
Next, I redesigned the layout. I tried to keep the good qualities of the previous design and only change what I felt was justified. So the two columns were retained with two-page images to start the chapters.
As much as possible, I wanted to use large images in the page, which only go beyond the margin when justified. I wanted to avoid a stifling, overly crowded rhythm.
For the texts I used Fontfabric studio's font "Alkes", which is a great typeface that is easy to read even in small sizes. For the highlighted quotes I used "Gigafly Headline Regular".
Alkes
Gigafly
The magazine regularly publishes literary texts: poems, short stories, etc. For these, I have designed a different, airier layout, making them stand out from the articles. I have removed the page numbers and the footers if they disturbed the pictures.
Where the subject matter and available images allowed, I also used double-sided compositions.
The first issue I worked from is the theme "Time". You can read about the radically different approaches of geneticists, astronomers and meteorologists. For the cover, I used a heavily modified version of an earlier graphic I had created and adapted to the magazine.
Each issue's social media presence has been given a visual theme related to the current cover.
