Overton
– Project nameOverton magazine
– RoleMagazine designer
– DateAutumn 2026
– SpecsAbobe InDesignThe brief for this project provided an opportunity to design a magazine on visual culture. I chose protests as it is a graphically-rich subject matter (placards, signage and other forms of visual semiotics). It was imperative that the magazine featured three articles, listings and a contents page, as well as three various covers which all work together as issues.
Inking slab serif mastheadsOnce I showed the two initial renditions of my magazine’s masthead to my tutors and peers, it was emphasised that I explore a much wider variety of different styles of slab serif. I decided on Overton as the name of my magazine, as it alludes to the contemporary, quick-paced snap-shot nature of it’s coverage. I set it nine times in nine different slab serif faces, along with the issue number, 01.
Article divider woodtypeI felt it was best to print the woodtype for the article dividers myself. Originally, I had used woodtype found online which had been scanned by someone else at an unknown DPI, which caused the quality of the letters to begin to crush once they reached a plateau of size. To resolve this, I scanned my printed letters at the most reasonably high DPI possible, 1,200. Furthermore there was unwanted friction created between the analogue, letterpressed masthead and the digital issue number and date; motivating me to print those myself too.
Flat-planI decided to create a flat-plan which helped me visualise how my magazine was gong to be structured (each colour represents a new section). Furthermore, a consistent piece of feedback was that my articles were visually too heavy, so seeing the rhythm of each article was helpful in resolving this aspect, balancing the content of my articles better. This also visualised the ratio of my short article to my long article.
MarginsI had to extend the inner margins of my magazine to 34mm due to the amount of paper Japanese binding takes up. Initially, my inner margins were 17mm, as I had designed for spreads rather than single pages, originally coptic-sewing within signatures. I tested three inner margin sizes (20mm, 24mm and 30mm) to determine the best inner margin width to use. Printing each text block and the varying inner margin widths and clipping them was the best way to achieve this. 30mm was the best, however it was still consuming the ends of lines. I therefore, after redesigning my magazine three times to accommodate the various inner margins, decided to extend the width of my magazine by 1cm, to 213.2 mm. This experimentation taught me that running the letterpress type across the spread for the article dividers was not going to work. I therefore decided to treat the letters like actual pieces of woodtype, ensuring they are all set at a fixed, realistic size. This allowed me to be more creative with their placement and alignment.
Grid and typefaceI utilised a 12 column grid with 11pt leading because it allowed me to vary the widths of type and images used per article; Trump Not Welcome is three columns, whereas Unite the Kingdom is two – which adheres to traditional newspaper design rules (the longest article having the shortest line length). I was very conscious about not altering the 2:3 aspect ratio of my photographs (due to being shot on 35mm film) to keep their integrity, unless bleeding them off the page – the rule being that the bottom of the image must hit the baseline grid. I chose Mozaic HUM as the typeface for Overton because it did not clash with the predominately sans typefaces set on the placards, due to also being a sans and a variable font.
Paper stocksI wanted to use a paper stock that complimented my photographs, maximising opaqueness and stopping the toner from the laser printer causing the blacks to glare. After sampling multiple different papers from GF Smith, I ultimately decided on ‘GF Smith Max’ in 115gsm and the natural matt colour. After discussing with my tutors, opting for a perfectly white colour would have been overly refined and too nice – not reflecting the grittiness of Overton. This encouraged me to opt for an uncoated stock, but because of the length of Overton (94pp), this would have very quickly got exhausting for the reader, risking them putting the magazine down because of it’s persistent roughness becoming exhausting to handle, in combination with the grip required from Japanese binding.
The colour of the masthead, date and issue number varies per issue (01 is yellow, 02 is orange and 03 is purple). This affects the colour of the paper stock at both the front and end of the magazine, which denotes the editor’s note (at the beginning) and extras (at the end). Red and blue is used throughout all issues to mark the protests from either the left (red – the colour of labour) and the right (blue – the colour of the conservatives). The stock I specifically used for this was all from GF Smith’s colour plan range in 135 gsm; red, blue, yellow, orange and purple.
Risography
Registration was the real challenge with risography. Fortunately, the masthead of my magazine was big enough to accommodate, however, this increasingly became problematic once I started to layer another colour on top of it. After at least 80 attempts per cover, I got as close as I could to aligning both colours. I had to keep reminding myself that risography is an imperfect medium, however striving for pixel-perfection was a goal I couldn’t help but try to achieve, which I ultimately did get very close to, however the issue number and date on each front cover were the more challenging elements, as they were set at smaller type sizes. Overall, the registration between plates was as perfect as I could get it. I then decided to overprint a solid colour on top of everything in the same colour of the masthead, date and issue number. This added depth to the cover and Overton’s identity by leaning further into the risograph process, making it stand out and be even more disruptive amongst over magazine covers.
Furthermore, from a business perspective, using risography to print magazine covers is a lot more realistic and justifiable than individually printing each one with a polymer plate by hand (my original approach); something an independent magazine just starting out could manage initially, but as sales increase, mass-production would be a concern with a small team size. Risograph printing however, allows for thousands of copies to be printed
per run.
MaterialityOnce I had overprinted the solid colour on top of the covers and sprayed them with fixative, I was ready to get the holes punched. I measured the diameter of the holes (7mm) and made a template which I gave to the person responsible for the department’s in-house reprographics with all three magazines. The holes were punched, allowing me to begin sewing each one using Japanese binding. Prior to this, I tried punching all the holes myself with a Japanese binding tool, however the holes were too small to accommodate thick rope thread. I did not want to use delicate thread like I had before, because it juxtaposed the identity of Overton, which I tested by sewing a dummy to confirm. Furthermore, I chose Japanese binding, as it forces the reader to grip the magazine and experience it’s tactility, rather than just simply putting it on a table and letting it lay flat. This immerses the reader within the intense hands-on, gritty nature of the magazine.