ROWDY

Magazine Layout & Art Direction

Issue No. 1

An Odyssey through space and time

Rowdy Magazine is a publication focusing on fashion, lifestyle, music, and beauty. It is the first entirely student-made magazine to be actively distributed on the University of Florida’s campus. Rowdy’s mission is to encourage an unapologetic expression of creativity.

To celebrate its first issue release and Women’s History Month, the Rowdy team held a launch party at Downtown Gainesville’s The SL8 Gallery. UF students were encouraged to “dress rowdy”—promoting unabashed expression through attendees’ personal style. With the attention-grabbing launch party campaign slogan “Dress Rowdy. F*ck It,” it was impossible to arrive “overdressed.”

As the senior art director and visual editor, it was my responsibility to ensure the magazine was graphically stylized and harmonized with the bold Rowdy brand. The logistical and physical set-up of the gallery for the launch party—planned entirely by the creative student team— paid particular attention to the notion of strong, outspoken women in business. With help from a great team of young designers, artists, marketers, stylists, local vendors, and more, Rowdy was able to host an extremely successful event that introduced an outlet for a previously hidden culture of fashion-oriented individuals in the local community.

Rowdy Magazine’s Instagram: @rowdymagazine

Issue No. 2

The Identity Issue

Since its founding, Rowdy Magazine has advocated for representation, inclusion, and diversity. Released in the fall of 2019, Rowdy’s second issue had a mission to shed light on the minority identities often overlooked within the borders of UF’s campus and, in a greater context, all of modern media.

The Identity Issue covers topics ranging from the under-representation of plus-sized bodies to colorism and tokenism in the fashion industry. Cover model Hunter Pifer sat down with Rowdy and discussed being a trans woman and how she uses her “passing” and white privilege to dismantle the stigma surrounding trans women.

Our team of student writers, models, editors, and designers worked to accentuate the unparalleled beauty and cultures offered by the many unique identities and communities around us. The magazine’s well-researched articles accurately accredit minority groups for the common fashion and beauty trends we see today.

Rowdy hoped to empower the individual by emphasizing the differences we can make and the intense growth each person goes through in a lifetime. More specifically, college students undergo immense change in a relatively short amount of time to come out the other end as confident, authentic, and true to one’s self. To commemorate this time of change, the Identity Issue’s release party asked attendees to dress “monochromatic and dramatic,” requesting that each and every Rowdy supporter wear an ensemble of one color that represents who he or she is.