e'spire

It was quite the journey being the designer for e'spire from its inception in 2009 for its inaugural issue.

It started as a 28-page magazine then moved to 68-pages by it's second issue. By 2011 it had grown to 88-pages. To date, it's still the only perfect bound magazine the Office of Communications and Marketing has ever produced. It holds steady at 88 pages only because any thicker it would mail at a higher rate.

Since the beginning my main objective was always to produce a creative magazine for the school. I even took liberties phonetically with how its name would appear on the cover. With the support of Marvin Curtis, the dean of the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts, the magazine has continued to be known as e'spire (or Aspire in copy).

Stories and photography was provided by students, faculty and staff. On many occasions for large events an outside photographer was hired.

The magazine showcased stories from all five areas of the arts; Communication Studies, Visual Arts, New Media, Music, and Theatre and Dance. Pages dedicated to spotlight student and faculty work were sprinkled throughout the magazine. The piece acted as the school's primary recruitment tool and included "ad pages" that provided important information about each of those areas.

The 2011 issue received international recognition from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) in the Circle of Excellence Awards. The magazine won a bronze award for periodicals in the category for in-house publications.