Impose Magazine

I started out on a freelance basis, designing event flyers and posters for Impose but jumped at the chance to take on more responsibilities becoming the art director for one year. Their logo redesign was my last job at Impose but it has made the longest impact on the brand that still manages an online music magazine.

The logo design process was lenghty and many logos were scrapped along the way. At least 50 ideas died before finding the ultimate design. The editors even passed on the final logo until I presented it a second time. The logo is minimal and sliced up because that's what Impose does; it slices up the the music scene and serves its followers the best. 

This logo was created in 2008 and soon after, I saw copycat logos pop up such as the chopped MTV and Impossible Project logo. 

Impose website design by Sarahana. All photographs courtesy of Impose and their photographers, rights reserved. 

Impose Magazine was free and distributed to music stores and record labels around the country. In issue 30, my first issue, I tried to follow the template set out by their previous designer but simplified the graphic elements so the photos could speak for themselves. 

All photographs courtesy of Impose and its photographers, rights reserved. 

2008 was a bad year for the print magazine industry and issue 31 of Impose was its last. It fell victim to the recession causing the price of printing and paper to skyrocket. Impose wasn't the only magazine that folded that year.  

We didn't let the bad news stop us from putting out one the best issues Impose Magazine had ever seen. I took more liberties in pushing layouts and simplifying type elements. I was getting to know the regular photographers and had more say in who would photograph events.

The redesign of the magazine was so strong it caused a lot of misunderstandings. Contributors thought the editors were pouring money into a design team (I was mostly paid in free music) which created some tensions. 

All photographs courtesy of Impose and their photographers, rights reserved. 

A music magazine spends as much energy creating advertising and marketing documents as it does editorial. Above is a media kit presentation sent out to attract advertisers.