← BackCase 02 / 05Editorial / mediaShipped, no longer online
Digital Magazine
An independent culture magazine where every long read gets its own layout without breaking the system.
- Client
- Name TBD
- Industry
- Culture media
- Role
- Web designer, editorial design
- Year
- 2026
- Visual direction
- Editorial, experimental
- Services
- Editorial design, Design system, Visual design, Front end
Concept
A magazine lives on reading and on surprise. The system has a calm, readable core for text and a set of expressive modules that editors combine to give each story its own character.
Challenge
Readers came from social links, read one piece, and left. Long reads looked identical to news, and the editorial team couldn’t make a special issue without a developer.
- More reading depth: the next story should be hard to resist
- A modular long-read template editors can art-direct
- Comfortable reading on a phone first
Structure
Cover: the current issue
- 01Sections: art, film, music, architecture, essays
- 02Long read
- 03Issues archive
- 04Authors
- 05Newsletter and support
Visual system
Typefaces
Aa
Instrument SerifDisplayABCDEFGHIJKLM abcdefghijklm 0123456789
Aa
GeistText and UIABCDEFGHIJKLM abcdefghijklm 0123456789
Palette
- Newsprint
#EEE7DA - Ink
#1D1A17 - Rust
#C0461C - Clay
#A8603D - Sand
#E3B07F
Grid
Text column 680 px · free image field
Key pages
Then and now
The modular long-read idea stays; type pairing, grid, and modules are redrawn, and the build is tuned for reading on a phone.
Results at launch
- +XX%
- pages per session
- +XX%
- average reading time
- +XX%
- newsletter sign-ups