Pedro' What Why How 26-9-18

First Text on What, Why and How

WHAT

Neural is a magazine that started in Italy in 1993. Its’ first edition was released only edited in Italian, but eventually, in 2008 it started to earn its’ space internationally, assuming itself a magazine that only had an English edition.The intention since the beginning was to create a printed interface where themes like digital culture, media arts, hacktivism, and even electronic music could start to be displayed for the general public, always backed up by a contemporary design. Nowadays, the intentions are to innovate even more, creating a parallel between the analog printed medium and its’ website.

HOW

Neural had already been redesigned two times, being the last in 2008, and ten years later had the intention to change once again. I integrated the team that was going to do it for the third one. I assumed the role of the graphic designer in the team. Not only from the beginning we understood the need for this graphic work to be done but also knew that there was the need for a new management of how all the magazine parts interacted among themselves. We had to go through the categories that they used to have, see how they have developed during this ten years’ period and decide what would have to be redone and relinked.

WHY

I was about to finish my bachelor and we could either start a personal project or find an internship for ourselves. A university professor of mine that was a contributor to the magazine made the connection between the magazine editor and the graphic design department in FBAUP, from this sequence of events I ended up joining their team. We started the project and what it seemed to be only a graphic rebrand turned out to have deeper needs for different interventions. This changed my involvement in the process, challenging me to assume different roles and to step out the graphic designer bubble in which he is only processing information and changing how it might be displayed.

Second Text on What, Why and How

Neural is a magazine that started in Italy in 1993. The intention since the beginning was to create a printed medium, where themes like digital culture, media arts, hacktivism, and even electronic music could start to be displayed for the general public, always backed up by a contemporary design. Its first edition was released only edited in Italian and it was a translation of William Gibson’s book “Agrippa (a book of the dead)”. This changed in the second issue and it started to address topics like cyberpunk, electronic music, BBS (Bulletin board system), VR, media, science fiction and OVNIs. Eventually, in 2008 it started to earn its space internationally, assuming itself a magazine that only had an English edition. Nowadays, the intentions are to innovate even more, creating a parallel between the analog printed format and its digital website.
Neural had already been redesigned two times, being the last in 2008, and ten years later had the intention to change once again, motivated by its dated graphic appearance and with a need for a structural change. I integrated the team that was going to do it for this third one.
Our team had three members, Alessandro that was the editor, Miguel Carvalhais that was one of the contributors and also the bridge between the magazine and me. I had the role of the graphic designer. Not only from the beginning we understood the need for this graphic work to be done but also knew that there was the need for a new organization on how all the magazine categories interacted among themselves, connecting interviews, reports, and essays creating a structured narrative.
I was about to finish my bachelor and we could either start a personal project or find an internship for ourselves. A university professor of mine that was a contributor to the magazine made the connection between the magazine editor and the graphic design department in FBAUP, from this sequence of events I ended up joining this team.
We started the project and what it seemed to be only a graphic rebrand where we would create a new layout turned out to have deeper needs for different interventions, we found ourselves with the need to create new categories that would now be used in parallel with the digital edition of Neural, we had to restructure how reviews would now be presented and also what they would be reviewing. This changed my involvement in the process, challenging me to assume different roles and to step out the graphic designer bubble in which he is only processing information and changing how it might be displayed.