Publishing · 2016
Creative direction and digital editorial design for the second issue of Lights Magazine, developed by the Corporate Magic team as an interactive publication focused on the people, technology and ideas shaping the live-event industry.
Lights Magazine grew out of Corporate Magic and the world we worked in every day, giving us a place to look beyond individual productions and talk about the people, technology and ideas changing the event industry. By the second issue, we had learned a great deal from the first and were able to refine the structure, improve the way stories moved through the Mag+ platform and push the interactive side of the publication further.
The issue was built by many of the same people working together at Corporate Magic, with editorial led by Jeff Kirk, design and development all contributing to how each story was presented. We worked as one team rather than treating the magazine as a series of separate assignments, which gave us the flexibility to use video, animation, illustration and progressive content without losing the editorial structure we had established.
Bran Ferren became the central feature of the issue, but the publication as a whole was designed to reflect the broader world Corporate Magic operated in, from major productions and emerging technologies to the people responsible for making those experiences possible. That connection gave Lights a point of view that came directly from working inside the industry rather than simply reporting on it from the outside.
Brett Affrunti also continued his illustration work for one of the magazine’s recurring departments, which focused on some of the more outrageous artist rider requests that production teams encounter behind the scenes. His style gave that section its own personality and helped balance the more technical and industry-focused stories elsewhere in the issue.
The award winning second issue became one of the most recognized projects produced by our Corporate Magic creative team, receiving honors from the Society of Publication Designers and the American Advertising Federation at the local, regional and national levels. For me, the recognition was important because it validated something we had built internally as a team and showed that work created around the event industry could stand alongside some of the best editorial and digital publishing being produced at the time.