Material Magazine
A satirical teen magazine tackling the relationship between consumer culture and self-expression.
Scope: Publication Design
Industry: Entertainment
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Develop a publication system
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For Issue 1 of Material Magazine, I narrow the focus to digital aesthetics and the marketing of girlhood.
My target audience for this subject is primarily Gen Z women and femmes, but the magazine offers something for everyone to take away.
At its reception, I was delighted to find readers from all walks of life engaging with the content as intended.
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To deepen The Trevor Project’s connection with their audience, my creative decisions were informed how LGBTQ+ young people in crisis actually experience support. This audience turns to the internet first, especially if reaching out to adults in their life feels unsafe. For this refresh, the audience needs to see themselves reflected honestly.
Swapping harsh neons for warm pastels, the refresh incorporates fluid textures, more realistic illustrations, and a distinctly ‘online’ typographic style. All of these elements position The Trevor Project as peers committed to support and safety, not another cold and sterile authority.
You don’t need belongings to belong.
In contemporary culture, especially among Gen Z, our purchases are read as personal signifiers; a language expressed by our choice of clothing, decor, and even food. These choices signal something about our individuality, our belonging to a social group, our gender expression, and too often, our worth.
Something that starts as an expression of identity or taste is easily co-opted into a neatly-packaged ‘aesthetic’ you might buy online, along with some unhealthy messaging and environmental consequences. For example, ‘girlhood’ is not defined by shopping at Lululemon, listening to Lana Del Rey, or drinking Diet Coke, but those consumer choices are marketed as though they will grant us access to the ingroup. This presents additional problems as the desired product becomes less accessible, such as the high price point of, say, the Lululemon Define Jacket, a coveted item in certain online spaces.
Material Magazine aims to confront the interaction between consumerism and gender norms via a satirical, teen-magazine-style publication system.
