An Editorial and Publication Design System for Élan Journal
the brief
Élan Journal is a self-initiated editorial concept, a publication designed to exist at the intersection of lifestyle, design, and architecture. The question it was trying to answer: can a magazine feel both expressive and disciplined at the same time?
The brief I set myself was to build a flexible editorial system that could hold across very different content, long-form features, visual essays, short-form pieces, without losing its visual point of view.
the work
The editorial design system was built around a tight typographic hierarchy - a serif used for feature headlines and pull quotes, a neutral grotesque for body text and captions, creating enough contrast to feel expressive without fragmenting the page.
Grid discipline was treated as a design tool rather than a constraint: consistent column structures allow layouts to breathe across long-form features, while deliberate white space does the work that ornament might otherwise fill. The result is a print magazine design that holds together as a system across every editorial context.
The Result
A magazine that feels like it was made by someone who reads as well as designs. The system is built on a clear typographic logic, expressive at the display level, rigorous at the body level, so it can adapt across content types while always reading as the same publication.
The layouts prioritise pacing as much as composition. A well-designed spread gives the reader somewhere to rest. That's harder to achieve than a beautiful one.
