Reboot is a publication about reimagining techno-optimism for a better collective future. It consists of a newsletter and annual print magazine (kernelmag.io) which are backed by the Omidyar Network, Hopelab's RTYPF, the Ford Foundation, 0xPARC, and hundreds of individual supporters.
Newsletter and Social Graphics
I served as Creative Director from Fall 2024 until now, establishing a graphic system for select articles as well as an Instagram shareable format. Prior, they would use open-source photographs for their articles and share on Twitter - this expanded our brand presence and increased inbound.
Left: Select graphics for the newsletter, Right: graphics translated to social media
Kernel Magazine Art Direction and Graphics
Kernel Magazine is Reboot's annual magazine, this year's theme was "Rules" particularly systems and algorithms in technology. I art directed 12 artists to create custom editorial illustrations for each piece as well as the cover.
I wanted to have a distinct style for the two sections within the magazine. The first, Regulation centered around examining existing algorithms whereas Generation seeked to question and reinvent them.
As such, the art in Regulation has a rigid and realistic feel.
Whereas Generation consisted of more malleable and soft imagery.
Below are images from the final magazine! I also created a series of social media graphics for our launch event which drew 4x more people than previous years.
Kernel Magazine Print Design
I also collaborated with Eileen Ahn on a special edition print zine consisting of two "rules"-esque articles from the Newsletter. We were able to sell out half the copies at our first launch event!
Reflection
Brand and creative design is much different than product. Although the same gestalt principles apply, I learned much more about iterating around a vision and understanding how tiny visual details could shape someone's implicit impression. Furthermore, it was nice to see with my past experience illustrating how that played into helping direct others in drawing out the core meaning from a piece!
Thank you to Justin Carder for helping me with wrangling InDesign and general insights into the book design process.