A weekly online magazine. We created a visual editorial guidelines, and designed website.
In 2020, we partnered with All Things Small to design their online magazine, FiftyTwo – a long-form journalism platform publishing one story a week from the Indian subcontinent.
Our task was to bring this modern digital publication to life while preserving the feel of traditional editorial storytelling.
FiftyTwo’s publishing model revolves around a new story each week. To make homepage a hub for this ever-evolving grid of stories, we developed a layout that accommodated this progressive release schedule. Our goal was to ensure that both new and old stories were discoverable while maintaining an engaging user experience.
Typography played a critical role in shaping the visual language of FiftyTwo. Drawing inspiration from physical editorial magazines, we employed bold, stylish typography to give the platform a modern feel.
The About page set the tone for the rest of the site, using large, impactful type and creatively integrating square element from FiftyTwo’s logo in various visual treatments.
We wrote a detailed account of our selection process for typefaces in The Sans Selection on our blog.
FiftyTwo offered membership plans, granting subscribers access to behind-the-scenes content and exclusive stories. Our designs included a fitting landing page as part of an end-to-end membership flow, showcasing the benefits and features of being a member.
FiftyTwo commissioned stories before Covid as multi-format reads—video, audio, data viz, interactive elements. By the time the stories were ready and being designed, Covid restrictions meant that the original editorial ambition of using real-location images had to be curtailed.
With the FiftyTwo team, we came up with an editorial plan to use illustrations as covers and build a house style. These illustrations by Akshaya became very popular with people comparing them with New Yorker.
FiftyTwo stories spanned a wide range of topics and were long-form in nature, ranging from 6,000 to 30,000 words. To enhance the reading experience, we implemented several design techniques to create visual anchors and relief points; and enhance navigation within the stories.
For more featured stories, we introduced the concept of custom hero sections, which provided a thematic introduction to each narrative. We created sample designs for these story heroes as inspiration.
In addition to the long-form stories, we also designed blogs that gave readers behind-the-scenes looks into how stories were crafted.
FiftyTwo’s design now reflects its mission of bringing in-depth, long-form journalism to life while offering readers an enjoyable and cohesive experience. Through careful typographic choices, strategic use of grid layouts, and the integration of immersive storytelling techniques, we created a visually rich, engaging platform.
We strengthened FiftyTwo’s brand identity, creating a scalable, future-ready digital solution for their growing readership.
Design
Kasturi, Manaal, Tejas