Client
New Sociological Perspectives is an open-access digital journal publishing papers written by graduate students worldwide. The NSP Journal is run by a group of students in the UK at the London School of Economics. The journal aims to be a respected source of good analysis of current social phenomena.
Goal
A modern identity, looking professional and reliable. That it's easy to recognize and remember and stand out in the middle of other publications.
The icon
When studying where the new identity needed to work, we understood an icon as necessary. The project required a logo that worked well on the University page dedicated to it: the icon would appear in all published articles (you can see it in action here). There was an opportunity to draw the NSP letters in a way that translated different ways and perspectives.
After many sketches and refinements, the icon came to life. It is different from the other logos in the field, simple and interesting. It stands out and is easily understood and remembered without losing professionalism and elegance. With the right balance, it can be rotated on all sides and transformed into a pattern if future projects ask for more graphic material.
The logo
The logo is created next, complementing the icon and making the use in the journal cover modern and exciting. The text uses Fjalla One, a type with the right amount of personality. The yellow stroke comes as a way of introducing, in the logo, the secondary color (a requirement of the University).
The journal cover and the imagery choice
The imagery choices and how to use it were among the most discussed topics while creating the identity. The final settlement was that the photos needed to bring the idea of subjects being analyzed, but they couldn't illustrate anything in particular. That's because different articles with different topics were going to make every edition.
The easy way out would be not to use photos at all and opt for some graphics, but we wanted an iconic set of covers.
