World Soccer Magazine

This was a magazine project for my class, where I was tasked with creating a magazine and designing a new visual style for it. I decided to base this fictional World Soccer magazine issue around Wrexham AFC, as the club was gaining widespread attention at the time. With Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney taking ownership of the historic but struggling club, which was on the verge of collapse due to the previous owner's neglect, the story of their takeover was making waves. Their efforts to revitalize the club and elevate it to new heights of success served as the foundation for the magazine issue.

I centered most of the articles and design around Wrexham, but since this was a general soccer magazine, I also included features on other teams and players. The overall design of the magazine remained consistent, but I adapted it to reflect the different teams and players mentioned in the articles. For the photos of players, I added a smoke-effect aura around them. This was inspired by the popular manga Blue Lock, which was capturing the attention of soccer fans and drawing new fans to the sport. I admired the smoke aura effect in the manga and anime and thought it would be visually compelling if applied to real soccer. I wasn’t alone in this inspiration—similar designs were even seen in the Japanese U-20 soccer team's jerseys, which resembled those in Blue Lock.