Desert Dispatch Issue #3

Magazine

Art Direction
Publication Design

Desert Dispatch is a publication put forth by the University of Dayton’s Art and Social Practice course in support of their “Dinner in the Desert Kitchen” (DDK) fundraising event. The magazine addresses food insecurity in the Dayton area using articles and photography submitted by students and overseen by professors. Issue #3, “Forage Ahead,” discusses systemic racism, the new Gem City Market, and features interviews with local non-profits, artists, and art galleries.

A stack of Desert Dispatch issues.

I designed the issue’s cover, front matter, and first twenty-three pages of content. In addition to my design duties, I also interviewed a local non-profit founder and wrote an article on her organization. To begin, my project partner and I established a detailed set of design standards to ensure our work would have a unified look. We explored typefaces, collaborated on a color palette, and found a set of illustrations that would be used throughout the issue. Setting these early standards made our workflow efficient.

This project required flexibility and attention to detail. Our content came from a number of different writers and photographers and staying on schedule was crucial to meeting our delivery date. The final piece was tabloid size and was printed Swiss Army style with Issue #2, which was shelved in 2020 during quarantine. The double issue was sold for a $20 donation.