SPECIAL ISSUE: May Feature

Barista Magazine was perhaps too obvious a choice for May's Special Issue given InHouse's relationship to the coffee, coffee shops, coffee growers, barista judging, barista training, etc.  That said, it's also appropriate and timely (having just seen the World Barista Championship come and go in the month of June) so off we go to the land of coffee.

Barista Magazine's design/layout went under the knife pretty recently providing yet another fascinating study topic.  What trends were they following? What standards are they setting now? What specific choices did they make with their remodel with regard to ditching design elements (or hanging onto them)?  The new look was overdue -- they went 7 full years with the same masthead and cover design. It will be interesting to see how this cover design evolves.

For these covers, two black and white photos from Zambia's Barista Championship were chosen. We've presented two different layouts.  These options would give an editorial board two very different covers to choose to publish.  And, for Barista magazine, either would be a 'black and white' first.

Barista Magazine's inside is done by a fabulous and highly specialized 'industry' design shop in Portland, Oregon (Pail Design). If you ever get a chance to peak INSIDE this publication, it's a feast for the eyes and well worth tracking down a current and back issues as it's chock full of fascinating information -- all beautifully and creatively presented.

Maybe what we really need to do is to start an AFRICAN BARISTA Magazine?  Oh dear...what fun trouble are we going to get into next?

InHouse is proud to have contributed photos from Zambia's Barista Competition to Barista Magazine's online blog and their coverage of competitors in the World Barista Championship held in Melbourne, Australia at the end of May.

SPECIAL ISSUE: April Feature

"Triathlete" has been in the works for a while.  As a study project, it was put on hold as we tended to clients and met other deadlines.  BUSY IS GOOD!  The particulars for this project are interesting from many technical perspectives:  their choice of fonts (they use a lot of different and fairly obvious fonts but alter them all significantly), the use of photography (most of their cover photos are action shots and have several layers with the masthead sandwiched in between), and mixing colours.  "Triathlete" also does not have a single set of fonts they use from issue to issue -- they really change things up from month to month; issues share the masthead (which is very oddly positioned on the page and creeps over both the right and left printed borders) and little else.

We considered a dozen photos and even did a pool photo shoot.  The pool shoot was great fun but the results were disappointing:  the pool chemicals were not cooperating (it was just cloudy enough to make the photos not quite clear) and quite frankly, our underwater camera is not meant for this use and the quality of the photos were disappointing when they were made life-size.

I'll be highlighting some new partner companies (and their services) in the coming weeks as well as catching up on Special Issues for May and June!  Thanks for insisting on finally seeing our SPECIAL ISSUE April Feature.