Graphic designer and teacher Felix Oppen recently launched the inaugural Ligature Journal, a publication that investigates design, and ideas surrounding design. The journal is designed, produced and promoted by final year students in the Bachelor of Communication Degree Program at THINK Education (Billy Blue College of Design).
Every aspect of the 92-page, four-colour edition is student managed from content to press checks to building the digital version. While some may be dismissive of a student magazine, it totally stands up on its own as a top shelf, relevant publication. This is exactly the vision Oppen had for Ligature Journal – that it would add to the design and creativity discourse in Australia, New Zealand and beyond.
Felix Oppen says young designers are constantly taught to think outside the box, push the limits on designs and always be flexible. “However, it’s often easy to fall into a trap, where one can create something beautiful and striking, yet we often tend to cling to these works as our best and never push them any further, essentially taking the creativity out of the design process and relying on past successes or variations of them.
“In Issue Zero we wanted to “recreate the new”. That is to take what already exists, break it down and turn it into something else, something fresh and vibrant and that pushes our limits as designers,” Oppen explained.
However, Ligature Journal is far more than a good read for designers and a place to bring together different facets of design. It provides ‘hands on’ experience for design students of a real world project that will go out into the marketplace. They gain experience in editorial design – from the creation and sourcing of content, to all aspects of the design process through to final artwork – as well as the offset printing processes from prepress, to press checks and through to delivery of a printed product.
The stock chosen for this work was K W Doggett’s Grange Offset 300gsm/110gsm, an economical, bright white uncoated paper which Oppen says punches way above its weight and is regularly mistaken for a specialty paper.
Ligature Journal is printed with the generous support of Sydney-based boutique print management company SEED Print Group run by Alaina Short, who is also a guest lecturer with a range of design colleges, TAFEs and universities.