Front side of Utility's slipcase and back cover of the magazine laid on blue satin.

Utility is a print magazine about our relationship to images in contemporary visual culture.

Category
Editorial, Print, Content Strategy

Date
Spring 2020

Overview
Thinking about “fictions”, Utility looks at the way images are used to tell the stories that actively shape the world we live in today. The issue focuses on three articles: the life of digital images, queer cinema, and intimacy in an internet age. Inspired by the movement and malleability of cinema, the magazine takes on a continuous accordion fold while basing itself on a narrow page size to complement its essayistic content.

First few opening pages, spread out in accordion form.
Table of contents.

Playing with form, on the page and as an object

The articles selected are visually structured in the magazine to represent three different venues and attitudes toward image consumption. The introductory section of Utility acts as an overview, setting the space of inquiry and associating each article with imaging mediums.

Within each article, image layout and art direction reflect their respective texts. In the first, images gradually form, degrade, and kaleidoscopically spread; in the second, images are larger than life and expansive; and in the third, images vertically scroll along its panels, interacting with onlookers.

Spread from first article.
Spread from second article.
Spread from second article.
Spread from third article.
Spread from third article's back side.

Front and back sides of the same spread. Image credits are placed directly behind each respective image.

Spread from third article.