Tim Bruce, art director at Chicagobased Lowercase, Inc., emphasized the written word over other images in the Writers’ Theatre’s literary magazine WT

The inspiration for WT magazine came from vintage theater programs and the theater itself, says Bruce. These mockups were rejected because of their size and inconsistency with the intimacy of the theater.


The designer was partial to one of the early tabloid-size comps, but when the client said it also didn’t match the theater’s intimate personality, he had to agree.

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Putting limits to work
“The Writers’ Theatre in Chicago was looking for a way to increase the connection between its subscribers and the theater,” says Tim Bruce, art director of Chicago-based Lowercase, Inc. “They wanted to extend the experience beyond attending performances. We determined that a literary-driven magazine would help the patrons understand the works being presented, as well as the theater’s approach to that work. We also noted that this would be a good way to keep everyone familiar with the breadth and depth of programs being developed.”

Lowercase had limited resources for images and limited time to deliver the finished product. Bruce’s strategy was to focus on images he could make work no matter what their level of quality; this led to an emphasis on black-and-white visuals and two-color printing. “Pretty early on, we made two design decisions,” Bruce says. “One, we were always going to print in two-color, and two, we had a range of image quality that we couldn’t control, so we had to find a way to make that imagery interesting as well as practical from a production standpoint. On one hand, it allows you to mask some of the weaker images, and it also allows you to take inconsistent imagery and tie it together so it seems like it’s all from one place.”

As a recurring publication, WT magazine employs a number of design elements that hold each issue together and establish a consistent identity: the two-color approach, size, masthead, grid, table of contents, and typography.

Bruce had several images of varying quality, so he made everything black and white. To tie the images together, he cross-processed them.