Design
Design is easily one of my favorite aspects of journalism. I love the whole idea of making things aesthetically pleasing, and I feel like anyone can appreciate some nice packaging. This translates well into journalism. Design is the first impression you give your reader, so I take the opportunity to elevate my layouts by using perfect alignment, nice contrast, and all those other cool design elements. I enjoy using tools like Adobe Photoshop and InDesign, and I can easily solve problems and find efficient ways to design work. The final stretch of laying out a magazine is one of the best feelings ever.
Use the menu to the right or scroll down to navigate through my design examples. Click on the images to enlarge.
Nā Koa Magazine
Our school's magazine has been a big passion project of mine. It all started in my junior year when I decided to revive Nā Koa for my senior project. The magazine was originally created by alumni Maile Sur back in 2014 as her senior project and has been passed down to editors ever since. Before my first magazine, the most recent one had been published three years previous. I brought it back and picked up a co-editor along the way.
Covers
I am especially proud of this cover because of my Photoshop work. I Photoshopped the subject off the background to put her in front of the title of the magazine, which creates dominance. Also, the depth of field with the bright orange dress really makes the subject pop. This striking cover perfectly demonstrates the subject's striking story.
This cover is pleasing to look at because of the way I designed the balance. Also, the color scheme creates nice flow and unity. This cover gives off a cool, chill feeling, which is the perfect vibe for this music issue.
Spreads
These two spreads are fun to make because everything has to be organized seamlessly. Not only are the left pages balanced perfectly with the photos and text, but the right pages are aligned nicely so that there are no empty spaces. Everything is designed purposefully on these spreads.
This spread comes from our Maui Made section which features impactful teens around Maui. This layout is a great example of design because it's unique and fits perfectly with the aesthetic of our magazine.
This spread is another example of my design skills because I not only excelled in the layout of this, but also in the graphic design. Because these pages are "how-tos," I had more creative freedom to present my work in unique ways, and I feel like I did that well through my use of columns, balance, and color coding.
Ka Leo O Nā Koa
The first time I held a physical copy of our school's newspaper in my freshman year, I knew I wanted to "do journalism." When it was finally my time, my fellow staffers and I created the first school newspaper in two years. No students enrolled in Journalism in the previous year. My first publication-release day is one of my favorite memories, especially since we have not had another official print-delivery day since COVID-19 hit. Below you can see some design examples from two newspapers I've worked on--one produced in class and the other produced fully through Zoom.
This is an example of my design skills because I was able to play around with various design techniques. Even though there are many images on the layout, I feel I did well with aligning them purposefully. The text fits perfectly around the map, and I also made sure to keep the names with the colleges and the colleges with the states, which makes the layout appealing to look at.
Designing the cancellation timeline was a completely new idea, and I am glad that I was able to do it. It was fun having the freedom to completely design this on my own. This design has good unity because every aspect of my timeline was consistent. Also, I feel like my alignment skills really showed in this design because I fit the pictures and information nicely in each of the boxes. Even though the spread is split horizontally, there is still really good balance. Nothing looks too overbearing or out of place, and the bottom half is a nice contrast from the top half. Everything just makes sense.
Graphic Design
Ever since middle school I have freehanded mandala designs on a sheet of copy paper with a sharpie. I never thought that this hobby would turn into a feature for our newspaper, but luckily for me, it did. I have designed mandalas by hand, then brought them into Photoshop to turn them into mazes for readers to solve. This became a big hit among our student body, and one of my mazes received state recognition as Best Illustration in the Private School Division by the Hawaiʻi Publishers Association. Below are two mazes that I created for our school newspaper.
