DOPE Magazine Refresh
DOPE Magazine is a cannabis lifestyle magazine thats aim is to highlight the positives of the industry and break the stigmas that have plagued it for generations. I’ve always been proud of what DOPE has put out and stand behind each issue even when some decisions were met with backlash. The reason being is because we all feel it’s important for any editorial magazine to push the boundaries and get the audience to ask themselves questions they might not have asked before.
Since we had the editorial side of the magazine locked down after a brief refresh, it felt only right to give the look of the magazine a face lift. DOPE has always had the classic masthead with the logo dominating the top of the cover with the talent featured front and center. It was a beautiful design, but with more and more publications coming out each year, it was time to modernize.
I lead the team of designers as we researched and gathered ideas of how we thought the magazine should look going forward. Through that research and focus groups we were able to gather enough information to point us in a direction we were already aiming towards. People wanted to see the magazine updated. The wanted it to feel less like a magazine and more like a coffee table book. Something you would want to collect rather than toss. A book that taught you something rather than showed you something.
What we ended up with was just that. We modernized the hell out of it by stripping away a lot of the fluff and minimized the graphics in order to let the photos and articles speak for themselves. The result ended up causing a bump in reader subscriptions, both online and in print. Our social media following grew and praise came in from all over. I think together we nailed.
