HOWL
HOWL is the literary and arts journal of the FRCC writing club at Westminster, publishing juried student art, poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction in a single annual volume with a companion digital edition.
As visual designer I own the journal's identity from cover to screen: art direction for each cover, the editorial system that carries prose, poetry, comics, and artwork in one issue, typography and production for print, and the digital edition that takes the issue beyond the campus. Because the work spans several volumes, the masthead, grid, and crediting conventions have matured into a system that student editors can rely on year after year.
Print is where the journal earns its place on a shelf, and where a student's work is read the way it deserves. I set the editorial system for the issue: a grid that gives prose, poetry, comics, and artwork the same authority, a type pairing that reads well at length, and a crediting convention so every contributor is presented the same way. The cover is art directed each year around a single student artwork, with the masthead held in a fixed position so the volumes read as one family on a table.
Illustration carries a large part of HOWL's voice, and each contributor's drawing has to reach the reader as it was made. I designed the editorial treatment for the illustrated pages: a consistent frame for titles and bylines, panels and artwork placed on the shared grid with generous margins, and pacing that lets a comic read in the order the artist intended. Artwork is prepared so fine linework and solid blacks hold in print and on screen, and every illustrator is credited with the same care as the writers.
The digital edition takes the issue beyond the campus and gives every contributor a link to share. It mirrors the print layout page for page and is published openly. Setting it up is part of the design work rather than an afterthought: export, pagination, and the cover treatment are tuned for the reader on screen instead of left to defaults.
I have designed HOWL across multiple years, and the value of the system shows over time. Each volume keeps the masthead, grid, and crediting conventions while the cover art and palette change with the work inside, so new student editors inherit a journal that already knows how to look. Volume 8 carries the same editorial system.
