“The Push" Editorial Feature
An editorial feature and companion advertisement for Volume One, an independent Wisconsin magazine.
Client
Volume One is an independent print and digital magazine covering culture, arts, and community in the Chippewa Valley region of Wisconsin.
Published
December 2022
Role
Layout design | Typography | Infographic design | Advertisement design
Format
4-page print feature + half-page ad
Brief
Volume One brought me on as a freelance designer to lay out a personal essay about housing costs and displacement, "The Push," which follows a writer priced out of Portland and relocating to Eau Claire, Wisconsin. I was given the finished copy and photography and asked to design the full 4-page spread, translate cost-of-living statistics from the article into a standalone infographic, and design a full-page advertisement to run on the following page.
Concept
Since the piece is about being pushed out of one place and pulled toward another, I wanted the design to feel personal and geographic rather than like a generic trend piece. A bold, oversized headline treatment opens the feature with confidence, while a warm rose accent color threads through the pull quotes, subheads, and infographic to unify the piece. A subtle topographic line pattern runs throughout as a quiet visual reference to place and relocation, echoing the article's central theme.
Collaboration
I worked from copy and photography supplied by Volume One's editorial team, and designed within the publication's existing masthead guidelines — page numbering and footer formatting followed their established conventions, while typography, color, layout, and imagery were left to my discretion.
Deliverables
4-page magazine feature layout
Custom "Portland vs. Eau Claire" cost-of-living infographic, built from data cited in the article
Full-page advertisement for a regional airport shuttle service, designed within the advertiser's own brand identity
Cost-of-living infographic
Built from figures cited in the article and rendered as a house-shaped bar chart, echoing the piece's housing subject matter.
Airport shuttle advertisement
Designed for the following page, working within the advertiser's own colors and logo while staying visually consistent with the surrounding editorial.
Outcome
A layout that balances long-form narrative, photography, and original data visualization, and shows a designer working confidently within an existing publication's brand system while still bringing distinct typographic and conceptual choices to the page.