Case File 007 — Editorial Design & Zine
The Wellness Zine
A student-run publication exploring mental wellness through personal storytelling, creative work, and psychology.
01 — Overview
About the project
The Wellness Zine was a creative publication built around the idea that personal stories can make conversations about mental health feel more open, human, and connected.
The zine brought together writing, illustration, photography, poetry, and psychology-focused content from contributors of different backgrounds. Its goal was to combine lived experience with accessible discussion of the mind, creating space for work that could challenge stigma, offer comfort, or help readers feel less alone.
Our four-person team shared responsibility for submissions, communication, social media, partnerships, and production. My work focused primarily on editing and designing the magazine itself.
02 — Designing the Issues
Two issues, two moods
I helped shape two issues: Growth, which explored change, healing, identity, and personal development, and Dusk Till Dawn, which focused on the emotional and psychological experiences connected to nighttime, rest, isolation, and renewal.
For each issue, I worked across a wide range of submitted material, including essays, poetry, illustrations, photography, and personal testimonies. My responsibilities included:
- Designing page layouts
- Pairing text with artwork and photography
- Building consistency across different contributors
- Creating visual pacing between longer and shorter pieces
- Preparing the magazine for publication
Because every submission had a different tone and format, the main design challenge was creating a unified issue without flattening each contributor's individual voice.
03 — Beyond Print
Extending the zine beyond print
Alongside the magazine, I created graphics for The Wellness Zine's Instagram page and edited a promotional video for the second issue, Dusk Till Dawn.
These materials helped introduce the publication's themes and translate the editorial identity into social and video formats.
The experience showed me how a publication can operate as more than a finished magazine. Its visual language also shapes how contributors encounter the submission process, how readers discover the work, and how the wider community understands its purpose.
The Dusk Till Dawn promo video
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04 — Inside the Pages
A look inside both issues
A handful of the spreads I designed and laid out across both issues — the range of tone and material that made a unified layout system necessary in the first place.
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05 — Reflection
Designing for many voices
The Wellness Zine was one of my earliest experiences designing for a large collection of voices rather than a single author or message.
The project taught me to approach editorial design as a form of interpretation. Layout, pacing, image placement, and typography all affect how vulnerable or personal work is received.
It also strengthened my ability to work within a shared creative process. While other team members focused on reviewing submissions, managing communication, and building community, I helped turn that collective work into a cohesive publication.
The strongest outcome was creating a space where personal stories and creative work could sit alongside psychological discussion without feeling overly clinical. The zine treated wellness as something complex, emotional, and deeply connected to how people tell their own stories.