Noah Fye a.k.a “tom Truly”
In an Editorial and Publication course, I created a 12-Page minizine about myself! This later evolved into an entire second identity, which has become an alias that I take on when engaging in any extra-curricular activities of college nightlife debauchery. But, you’re here to read about the design work and not my evening escapades, so let’s get to the case study’s key points:
This minizine consists of all facets of my life, including articles on my college sports involvement, visual showcases of creativity and skill as a designer, an interview of myself, and a three-page spread detailing the epic (and totally fabricated) backstory of the Tom Truly character. More about him below!
Not only was the minizine a shameless plug of my own *rad lifestyle*, it was also a direct reference to the OG self-touting rag, Oprah Winfrey’s “O, The Oprah Magazine”! This is shown with direct influence using parody in the cover, right down to the logomark’s execution and provoking headline writing style.
When penning the minizine, I focused heavily on the usage of four main type families. For the cover, I stylized the “O” logo into one more fitting for my own name, and set the type with variations of the Vectora typeface, which is the standard for “O”.
The inside-spread’s content within the minizine utilize the Rockwell typeface for body copy in the article and interview pages, and the Alfarn typeface for various headings and advertisements. Lastly, for the back cover’s call to action for the Johnson and Wales Univeristy Men’s Lacrosse program, I adhered to the University’s typographic standards, which uses the Frutiger typeface.
Included is an assortment of mock advertisements to parody those found in actual magazines, such as a male enhancement pill I created called FYEAGRA, a vote poster encouraging the election of candidate Tom Truly, and a feature-film announcement. I later created an ever-expanding library of collateral to build the rest of the Tom Truly brand, such as concepts for a video game spin-off, and real-life merchandise that I sold for my clothing company, AtticBoyz.
I’VE published the minizine for digital viewing on Issuu.com, which you can read yourself in full by clicking the button below!
BUT NOAH, WHO IS the TOM TRULY character?
"The identity of the man behind the name is unknown to most civilians, but urban legend has it that this elusive figure brings hope to the hopeless, directions to the lost, and good times to everyone who seeks them.
Tom is a hero to the locals of Providence but his influence reaches every corner of the globe. He strikes at random, making functions better, drinks tastier, and the streets safer. He is a modern day robin-hood of sorts, known only as Double-T to even those folks that he keeps close, making the public constantly wonder, who is he really? Some think he was named after a spiked beverage, but that would be too simple wouldn’t it?”
-an excerpt from the article, “Who Is Tom Truly?”
