LIA BASDEN

​​

CLIENT: School project, mock client

​

AUDIENCE: Primarily targeted at 16- to 24-year-olds with celiac disease, secondarily targeted at those slightly older or younger and other individuals who eat gluten free for medical reasons

​

GOAL: Create a stylish, engaging magazine to allow oft forgot members of the celiac community to feel included in trendy culture and media.

​

PROCESS: For this project, I first had to understand the competitors to a magazine that focused on celiac living in order to ensure the magazine stood out. I found that most competitors focused on older women or parents of children with allergies, rather than young adults. I also found most similar magazines were usually cooking magazines instead of lifestyle magazines. With this information, I could better target a forgotten audience by creating a magazine that visually rivaled other trendy lifestyle magazines for young people while featuring niche content for that population. For the name of the magazine, I wanted it to be obvious but not in a way that would attract the fad gluten-free dieters - only those who eat gluten-free out of necessity. I also wanted the title to allude to the life that a modern young person lives, a person who is still going on first dates and doesn’t always have time to cook their own meals. Thus, I paired the words “contemporary” (to appeal to young people) with “celiac” (for that quick connection with the target audience). Finally, for the design of the magazine, I again wanted it to have a very clean, modern, fun, and trendy look. To do this, I worked with bright photos and colors, picked fun, youthful fonts, and overall kept the layout simple.

 

OUTCOME: I conceptualized and designed a magazine for a niche audience that still fit in well with the popular media of today.