THREAD MAGAZINE
Tools: Content Design, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Photography
Thread Magazine is Cornell University’s largest fashion, art, and culture magazine. As a bi-annual editorial magazine, Thread encourages creative individuals to explore important social and cultural themes, ideas and topics through editorial stories and artistic photoshoots. I joined Thread as part of the art team, focusing on photography, layouts, and graphic design.
Last semester, I created layouts on Adobe InDesign and edited photos through Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom for the Digitalism section of the Spring/Summer edition. Through this experience, I learned how to enhance images to convey a specific mood or story, adjusting elements like lighting, contrast, and color balance to achieve a cohesive aesthetic. I also gained a deeper understanding of composition and how subtle edits can significantly impact the visual appeal and message of a photo.
PROCESS
My team was a fix of people from fashion to design to writers focusing on the topic of Digitialism. We met weekly to share sketches, talk about ideas, and work together to come up with plans for our final shoot. Through these meetings, we were able to define what digitalism means to us and how to convey that to our audience. Looking at inspiration photos helped us brainstorm and get on the same page. Talking and sharing ideas like this made sure everything fit together in the end. For Thread Magazine, we explored the concept of Digitalism by breaking it down into three core themes: stalkerism, the nostalgic vibe of 2000s technology, and the fusion of humans and technology.
Creating a shared Pinterest board helped us collect and organize inspiration in one place. It made it easy to share ideas and see what everyone was thinking visually. This helped us stay on the same page and quickly build a clear direction for our project. Here is the link to the Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/savizstylish/digitalism/. Below are some images that we all especially loved
Shoot days were a mix of creativity and focus, bringing our ideas to life through the lens. We worked as a team to set up compositions, adjust lighting, and capture each shot with care. As part of the Digitalism team, our locations were Ithaca downtown and in the studio. Our shots mainly were close up, birds-eye view, and medium shots. One of my favorite shots is a close up of a man in sunglasses with arduino and other technology glued to this face. The energy on set was exciting, with everyone contributing their skills to make the vision come together. By the end of the day, we always felt proud seeing how the effort and planning paid off in stunning visuals.
During the editing and layout design process, we used Photoshop, Procreate, Illustrator, and InDesign to bring the theme of Digitalism to life. We experimented with bold edits, layered visuals, and dynamic layouts to ensure the designs felt creative and unique. By blending our own inspiration and personal style, we crafted pages that reflected the fusion of technology and human elements central to the theme. Each tool allowed us to push boundaries and create something that stood out while staying true to the concept. Here are some example layouts we worked on: