The Theatre Magazine for Teens by Teens

The Theater Development Fund contacted Pie a la Mode Productions as part of their search for young, talented designers to help design the magazine and website for their teen program Play by Play (PxP). The challenge: developing design that engages the teen theater audience within the constraints of a limited color palette. (Each issue of PxP's quarterly magazine prints in black and white plus one other color.)

Distressed fonts and grunge effects are commonly used in design targeted at youth, but in spite of their presence here, the designs submitted by Pie a la Mode do not overtly pander to the youth of the target audience. A balance needed to be struck between visual engagement and remembering that a teen readership is not fundamentally less sophisticated than an adult readership. The first two concepts strike that balance.

The third concept is a further departure: a striking concept of the magazine cover with a decidedly retro feel and modern accents. The design is playful without being juvenile, and the setting of the magazine's title makes it a character all its own.