Reflections: Harbinger

The Creative Writing and English department at Stephens College produces an annual literary magazine, titled Harbinger. After having my writing published in the production twice, I sought the opportunity to design the magazine myself.

Harbinger is a unique project, because the theme of the issue is not predetermined, but actually dependent upon the themes that appear consistently in the selected submissions. The theme of this issue is Girls Like Us, a theme that was pulled from the stories and poems that captured girlhood- danger and delicacy, mistakes and mess, femininity and fury, all as natural as breathing for “girls like us”.
The visual elements of the magazine were chosen to represent all of those thematic aspects, as well as indicate women’s experiences based on their bodily forms, and what individual women can look like.
The illustrations are intentionally rough, to convey a sense of continued investment into the self, and never quite feeling complete. They are actually the sixth draft of such illustrations, but that’s the magic of design!
The cover image is pulled from the center art feature, a series of photographs inspired by The Virgin Suicides. The whole vibe is sort of deceptively soft, overlaid with the nuance of works in progress, of growth. The back cover is a photograph of the same swing set, sans model, sans illustrations.

This project was a unique challenge, but the end result was well worth it.