Drag Magazine
This Project Uses: Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe AfterEffects, Adobe Xd
Drag Magazine was a publishing company that showcased articles representing drag culture. This could be anything from drag fashion to profiles of popular queens of the time. The magazine Ran for twelve years starting in 1971. During the time, Lee’s Mardi Gras Enterprises Inc. were able to publish 29 of issues of the magazine.
For this project, I wanted to create a new brand identity for the now-discontinued Drag Magazine. The art of drag and the culture that surrounds the art form has grown tremendously. As a member of the LGBTQ community, I wanted to bring this now retired magazine and brand it on multiple different platforms.
This project includes:
Logo Creation & Ideation
Magazine Cover Ideation
Promotional Media
Animated Online Ads
YouTube Banners
Webpage Wireframes & Prototype
Background Research & Influence
Lee Greer Brewster, the main author and publisher of the magazine, was a drag queen as well as an activist for the LGBT community along with defending drag culture at a time where the soon-to-be phenomenon took off.
While there have been publishers doing issues that revolve around the culture of drag and the queens that have paved the ways for what drag is today, there doesn’t seem to be a fashion magazine nowadays to compete with the rest with offering nothing but fashion from the drag world.
When thinking about issuing Drag Magazine to the modern world of Drag along with the LGBT community, I use the publisher Vogue as a great inspiration to pave the way for a drag-heavy magazine.
Sketching & Logo Brainstorming
I created three revised logos. All of the logos use the Didot typeface. I wanted to create something that can be bold and memorable. I created not only a text-only lockup that would be the main logo but also some versions that are accompanied by abstract graphics. These pictorial marks include stylized illustrations that focus on stunning silhouettes and shapes that symbolize dramatic makeup.
These sketches are of what the physical cover of the new issue would look like. I wanted to focus on a topic that is new in the drag community, thus many of my drags focus on reigning queens from Rupaul’s Drag Race, as well as popular topics and trends that current queens are following.
Final Print Cover
Photo taken by Colin J Smith.
I wanted to have the cover focus on one queen in particular and showcase effective yet experimental typographic conventions. I decided to use my first logo, It’s bold and works not only on print media well but is also good for lockups and online use.
Animated Advertising & Icons
For advertising, I wanted to create some 300x600 animated gifs that can be used as advertisements on websites. I also created a 450x600 logo as well as an animated icon.
1st 300x600 Ad
This advertisement is set to me more intriguing and mysterious when it comes to its content, bringing in fans of drag and LGBTQ culture.
Freeform Ad-space
In this advertisement, we wanted to create something cohesive in color. Through monochromatic outfits and backgrounds, this checkered advertisement advertises the most recent issue.
2nd 300x600 Ad
This advertisement creates more of a narrative and exclaims to the viewer what is being revived.
With this ad, we are trying to tie into the market of readers who subscribe to newsletters and magazines.
Animated Icon
This icon uses a stylized lockup of the original logo. This could be used on pop culture sites that allow publishers to use GIFs as profile avatars (e.g. Tumblr).
Designing for Social Media
Images used are owned by World of Wonder Productions
I chose to work on YouTube for this project as WOWPresents and other popular drag content creators turn to YouTube for making content. I created banners that would brand the channel’s page. One banner is seasonal and advertises the most recent issue. The other banner is one that just has the logo and can most likely be used year-round.
UI Prototyping & Website Design
With the ever changing world of online articles, I wanted to bring this magazine to a all new digital format. This website prototype includes pages where readers can read online exclusive articles, new issues, and more.