Cadence
An editorial system built from rhythm
Cadence is a magazine project built around the idea that good publication design operates the way music does: pattern, variation, tension, release. The grid isn't a cage, it's a beat. Every spread plays against it differently.
This was an academic editorial project where I was responsible for the complete design system, from the grid architecture and typographic scale through to individual feature spread art direction.
Type doing the heavy lifting
The editorial direction was restrained: a two-typeface system, a strict grid, minimal color. The constraint forced the layouts to work harder on composition and hierarchy rather than surface decoration.
Feature spreads use photography and white space as the primary visual tools. The cover design telegraphs the interior: considered, a little literary, interested in slowing the reader down rather than pulling them through.
Discipline as a design tool
Cadence is the project that solidified how I think about systems-based design. Working within tight constraints to get something that still feels alive and surprising is the challenge that interests me most in publication work.
The project was selected for inclusion in my printed work samples, alongside MPS and Papi, as one of the three that best represents the range of my design approach.