Kate Brunkhorst, Project Posting #4 Magazine Spread Cover and Rationale

I started out with a few ideas for my magazine spread. I have a collection of old vintage records that I was initially going to photograph and do something with, but then I read a few articles in a Bridal magazine and received new inspiration: eco friendly weddings. You would be surprised how few articles there are about the topic, but I managed to find one that sparked my imagination to incorporate the various plays on the word “green.” Among the internships that I am applying for this summer are a few high-profile wedding /event planning firms in New York City, so I also wanted to use this opportunity to have something relevant in my portfolio. “Unique” wedding ideas have always appealed to me, and it’s kind of disappointing that there aren’t really any publications out there dedicated strictly to environmentally friendly or non-mainstream wedding ideas- so I “created” one!

My greatest inspiration stemmed from one of my favorite wedding photographers, Julie Harris, who actually only took the main photo of the husband and wife on my jump spread. The woman with the cowboy boots was a really funky picture choice that I thought fit well with my classy/quirky magazine theme. I wanted to emphasize that I didn’t want it to be a trashy or youthful publication, but that it still focused on a customer who was dedicated to their unique sense of self and to saving the planet in some form or fashion. I pulled the teal color of my headline from the stars in her boots.

As far as the article itself, it wasn’t very well written, but it had some neat ideas for green weddings. I came up with the headline: “Verdant Beginnings, Mindful Tomorrows,” which I then correlated for my idea to have a sapling on the first spread with the first half of the headline, and then a full grown tree on the second spread along with the second half of the headline. It suggests going from a humble beginning (in marriage) to a more established tomorrow through the idea of a visual family tree, in which I wanted to include picture frames where aspects from Jen and Barry’s “actual wedding” stemmed.

I also wanted to make the spreads look like a classy bride’s wedding planner/binder, so I created tabs on the side that made it look like the articles were elements from her scrapbook. This gave me the idea for some elements to look scrappy (the newspaper) and handwritten (see the re-used wedding rings). The article focuses on localized weddings, too, which plays back to the idea of family, roots, and establishing a new life on a green foundation.