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Cassandra Voices 3

“Cassandra Voices aspires to be a nexus for wide-ranging expertise. We provoke out of compassion, and kindness animates us. Contributors share deep knowledge and passion for their subjects, but generally operate on the fringes. We are unafraid of erudition, but avoid pretension.”

Cassandra Voices is an online and print publication drawing opinion and articles on a wide range of subject matter and current affairs from contributors across the Irish media landscape. The publication sets out to provide an alternative and much needed point of view with regard to the challenges faced by Irish society today. Following in the footsteps of previous progressive political publications, Cassandra Voices offers in-depth challenges and opposing views to modern mainstream political, cultural and social discourse. 2020 saw the publication of its third printed edition.

The studio was asked to create an appropriate design and visual communications approach to this publication, following the identity which has been implemented in previous issues. The studio works with extremely limited financial budgets to allow this print edition to even exist so effective print and material management are a vital concern. The 128pp publication is printed in a single colour on 100gsm Munken Pure not only as a cost effective technique but to give impact to the direct message of text and imagery.

The studio advised on the use of content both textual and visual, and worked directly with the project commissioner and photographer to create this issue. The publication was designed in its entirety and scheduled for release on March 31st in major bookshops across Europe. When the lockdown happened, the studio directed the editorial team to reconsider the photography to reflect the current situation. Photographer Daniele Idini responded quickly with a series depicting the early lockdown in Dublin, which provides a specific counterpoint to the issue’s other main photo essay of the Moira refugee camp in Greece.

The studio created a design approach that is visually strong but leaves space for innovative graphic treatment to make the theme of each publication interesting and unique. We developed a typographic approach for this issue that is relevant and impactful whilst avoiding cliché and pretence. As Cassandra Voices can genuinely say it is an independent publication, the studio asked the editors to select specific words to reflect this, which we then used to create broken typographic section headers. Typographic styles, composition, a suite of isotopes and the logo maintain Cassandra Voices coherent identity.

We believe that Cassandra Voices offers a much needed perspective on current affairs, however in our opinion publications such as this have suffered from a lack of consideration toward their design approaches. We believe the application of a rational and highly considered visual communications approach to a publication such as this reinforces and supports its content, helping to bolster the opinions expressed and present the issues and ideas in a visually engaging and complementary style.