Objective
Plasmic is a hyper-pop music magazine publication about trailblazers and dominant artists in the hyper-pop music genre. Hyper-pop takes the conventional form of a pop song and manipulates it to extremes, using maximalist sounds. The distortion, acidic, and drilling sounds of hyper-pop directed the composition, typography, image treatment, and color of the publication’s visual identity.
Font Exploration for Wordmark
While developing the wordmark for the publication, a range of fonts was compiled that represented the futuristic, technological, and ethereal characteristics of hyper-pop. These fonts served as the basis for the wordmark, as they would be modified individually.
Sketching
In the first column experimented with the fluidity of hyper-pop with the ligatures. The middle column conveyed how hyper-pop takes the average pop-song framework and pushes its aspects to sonic extremes. The disruption of the letter “S” in the wordmark represents how hyper-pop disrupts the pop space. The last column focused more on the technological aspects of hyper-pop, as there are more straight lines and corners.
Digitizing
Final Wordmark
Cover Iterations
Table of Contents Iterations
First Article Iterations
Second Article Iterations
Second Article Call Out Spread Iterations
Final
Cover
Table of Contents
"Hyper-pop, the Sonic Revolution of Pop" (Article 1, Spread 1)
"Hyper-pop, the Sonic Revolution of Pop" (Article 1, Spread 2)
"Hyper-pop, the Sonic Revolution of Pop" (Article 1, Spread 3)
"Charli XCX: Pop's Digital Pioneer" (Article 2, Spread 1)
"Charli XCX: Pop's Digital Pioneer" (Article 2, Spread 3)
"Charli XCX: Pop's Digital Pioneer" (Article 2, Spread 3)
Visual Language Sheet
Broadcast Animation
The looping publication animation uses glitchy, surreal visuals to reflect the genre’s chaotic, digital, and exaggerated sound. Caroline Polachek, featured on the cover, visually emerges from a distorted glitch pattern, symbolizing how hyper-pop artists break through cultural and sonic norms.
