Joan Lundell

BLIGHT magazine is an annual publication sponsored by the MFA in Collaborative Design program at Pacific Northwest College of Art. Blight challenges its readers to question the ugly, unseen and forgotten aspects of our daily lives. Its content is designed to provoke conversations on complex and controversial urban issues. I was a part of the founding team and worked to develop the magazine's mission, brand and content.

STRATEGY

Long hours were spent brainstorming the project’s creative brief and selecting the magazine’s title. We wanted to focus the content on issues of urbanism without using esoteric language, providing information on complex issues in a way readers could understand and relate to. Our intent was to create a well-designed, high-end, art driven publication with honest, authentic and visually evocative content based on the theory that if we made it both beautiful and easy to digest, people will want to look at it, read it, and engage with the issues.

OUTCOME

Now in its second edition, Blight is distributed throughout the Portland metropolitan area and has a readership of 5,000. Each spring, students in the PNCA Collaborative Design program select a topic to investigate that falls within the purview of the magazine’s mission, then strive to develop meaningful content. Addiction and homelessness are the topics that have been featured to date.

Collaborators: Issue no.1 Shelter - Katie Mays, Morgan O'Hara, Lauren Schaefer, Emma Conley, Joan Lundell
Issue no. 2 Fix - Katie Mays, Lauren Schaefer, Jake Richardson, Craig Higdon, Emilie Skytta, Sean Tichnell, Sharon Dvora, Joan Lundell 

tumblr: BLIGTH MAGAZINE