University project
The brief was to choose one of a few given articles and create two magazine spreads.
My chosen article was Was Charles Manson a CIA Lab Rat by Justin Ward and the style of the spreads was inspired by official declassified CIA and FBI files on Charles Manson that I found online.
After researching magazine layouts in general, newspaper and magazine layouts from the 1960s and early 70s and fonts used then, official documents by the LAPD, CIA and FBI, I used these styles as inspiration for my magazine spreads and tried to capture the spirit of the era.
My aim was to catch the viewer's attention and spark their curiosity to find out more, transport them into the specific time period and make them feel like they're reading secret information they're not supposed to know by creating a different and memorable layout.
I added textures to the heading and the photos, kept the stamps saying the information is classified, added marker strokes concealing some of the text, and chose not to use typical page folios but rather the original way pages were numbered in secret government documents - 00008, 00009, etc.
References
Official declassified files on Charles Manson and the Tate murders by the CIA and FBI - I tried to emulate the photocopied look and the feeling that the reader is looking at secret information they're not supposed to know.
