For my senior thesis project, I chose to design a magazine, Flourish, to highlight my journey as a performer in color guard. The word flourish combines the elegance of development in the real world but is also a technical term used frequently in the activity itself. Not only has it been a memorable time meeting friends and people who I would call my family, but it also has let me grow as a person and build the confidence that I didn’t have before.
One of the main reasons why I chose to pursue this project was the idea that color guard and design correspond in many ways. I wanted to showcase the electric energy this activity provides to the world in a publication with some other assets focusing on experimental layout design and typography. Just like any sport, color guards are branded and designed for each show they produce as well as the teams themselves. As a current and passionate lover of this activity for multiple years, I just felt that it was right for me to design and write my experiences down with my own creative spirit.
Designed with a vibrant, experimental approach to emulate the choreographed movements of a color guard performance, Flourish gives recognition to the performers as well as the many fans of color guard. In this publication, I chose to recognize an individual to focus on throughout, and in this case, it’s me! I hope you enjoy, I had a ton of fun working on this.
Flourish
Instructor: Sean McCabe
Publication
Typography
Experimental
Inspiration
Based on most action shots of the performers, the expressions of the performers alone speak for themselves, but I wanted to highlight that energy even further into a publication. There’s so much that goes into the activity that I knew I wanted to celebrate these groups of performers.
Coming from a strong background in color guard, I wanted to share my emotions and experience about the activity, so I started writing memories and specific instances during the performing stages. I also sent a google form to people who I met through the activity ranging in age to showcase their feelings as well.
What is Flourish?
I came up with the name Flourish which combines a term used in the activity with the meaning of the word itself, to grow and blossom. This brings awareness to both the real world and the color guard world. People who have done color guard take the knowledge that they have learned from the activity and put it into the context of the real world whether they are still involved or not.
In the beginning sketches of my ideas, I knew I wanted to have the diversity of what color guard is throughout the design. I started with a cover design and letterforms. I initially chose pink, green, and orange for my color palette, but it didn’t seem to have enough contrast that I was looking for.
Logos
As my thesis project for my final year at Temple, I really wanted to recognize my two greatest passions: Graphic Design and Color Guard. It has been an awesome experience to pull from my own research that I have lived through to create this publication for me and the people I have grown to know during these years in the activity. I wanted to say thank you to all of the people who gave their input into my concept or I wouldn’t have gotten to the point I am today. Feel free to give me any suggestions or comments, I would love to hear from you!
