Dogue
Editorial Design has always been my favourite area in Graphic Design, as it allows me to get creative with type and layout. I had not sampled with magazine design since my Tim Burton project, so I challenged myself to a day’s project to create a magazine brand.
I have been collecting and flicking through magazines since I was old enough to read, some of those brands including: Vanity Fair, Empire, Total Film, SFX, Elle and Time, but one brand which I have always considered to be ‘iconic’ is Vogue. However, I have never been the type of girl who is overly interested in fashion, so I slightly altered the brand name to fit with a topic that does interest me - dogs!
I chose to focus my May Edition magazine on a dog breed that I have always felt is the most photogenic - the Australian Shepherd. Despite its formal moniker, Australian Shepherds are a quintessentially American breed, developed in Western states to herd the flocks of sheep grazing there. Intelligent, hard working and versatile, Australian Shepherds are no-nonsense dogs who thrive in environments where their brains and energy are put to good use; but in addition to their active nature, they are also stunningly photogenic!
Australian Shepherds’ most identifiable feature is their blue eyes, which sets them apart from other dog breeds who are usually dealt with brown eyes. Eye colour depends on the presence of Melanocytes found in the iris, as they are responsible for producing Melanin. The majority of dogs typically have an adequate amount of Melanin, which results in normal eye colours like dark brown, however the identified Merle Gene found in Australian Shepherds disrupts the production and distribution of Melanin, resulting in rare eye colours like blue, green and amber. Their bright eyes, along with their multicoloured coats, makes this dog breed incredibly photogenic, hence choosing them as the main focus of my May Edition!