A conceptual magazine confronting the reality of a changing Earth - designed to move people through connection, not fear.
Editorial & Magazine design
Graphic designer
Environment & Sustainability
InDesign
2023
Planet is a conceptual magazine exploring the state of our changing world — its most vulnerable ecosystems, the human actions reshaping them, and what's at stake if nothing changes.
The publication doesn't set out to frighten its reader. It sets out to connect them to something worth protecting.
Inspired by Sir David Attenborough — whose ability to inform and inspire action without resorting to doom is something I deeply admire — each spread takes the reader through a distinct environment: oceans, deserts, forests, grasslands, and wildlife. The design mirrors his tone: calm yet commanding, hopeful yet honest.
Attenborough's work was the creative north star not just thematically but structurally. His documentaries move between beauty and gravity without jarring the viewer — they let the natural world speak first and let the urgency follow naturally. The magazine needed to do the same on the page. Each spread was conceived as its own visual essay: a distinct environment, a distinct emotional register, but part of one cohesive and considered whole.
The final publication spans five editorial spreads — Oceans, Deserts, Forests, Grasslands, and Wildlife — each pairing carefully selected stock photography with emotionally resonant copy, also featuring a pull quote or striking fact, set more prominently than the surrounding text — designed to catch the eye of a reader who's scanning before they commit to reading, and give them a reason to stop. I used strong contrast and bold headings to anchor each spread and generous white space to let the photography breathe and the reader slow down.
The mockups present Planet as a physical, printed object — because the tactility of print feels particularly fitting for a publication about the natural world. There's something intentional about that.
Planet is a passion project as much as a portfolio piece, and that's both its strength and its limitation. The subject matter is personal — I chose it because I care about it, and that investment shows in the design. But a real editorial brief would come with word counts, contributor guidelines, advertising constraints, and production specifications that would test whether the design system holds up under pressure.
The other honest reflection: the copy throughout is placeholder-level — directionally right in tone, but written to demonstrate layout rather than to genuinely inform. Commissioning real writers and working with actual editorial content would be the step that turns Planet from a design exercise into something publishable.