WMB 3D, and how I designed it

OK first and foremost, Nick Saglimbeni is the mastermind behind WMB 3D. I was lucky enough to be trusted with designing the layout for the magazine. After hearing his vision, I was on board faster than a cat on a ship full of tuna. My main job was to layout the magazine, however Nick is quite a talented designer as well, for he did the logo, and many of the ads you see in WMB 3D. Now I’m not one to boast about something to make an extra buck. I truly believe what has been done to accomplish WMB 3D is ground breaking. I’ll say it now, Nick has established himself as the best 3D photographer in the world. Correct me if I’m wrong. And if you don’t believe me, view the magazine for yourself (free sample gallery, $5 for full magazine):
iPhone/iPad iOS version
Android version

If you haven’t figured out already, WMB 3D is the world’s first magazine fully rendered in 3D, from the photography to the design. It was originally planned to be a tablet and smart phone (backlit) only magazine, but we also decided to print a limited run of beautiful 9×12″ collector’s magazines as well. We chose to do the red/cyan 3D approach because it is the most accessible across the world, and the least expensive. When technology progresses we will move towards glasses-less 3D.

3D lately has made a comeback and has seen it’s ups and downs since the recent explosion of Avatar (up), and the lackluster-last-minute botched downs of The Last Airbender (down). Seems like everyone was trying to hop on the 3D bandwagon, and in return there are a lot of bad apples to ruin it for the artists that follow through from beginning to end. I will not give away Nick’s secret on what camera he uses and how he processes the images, but I will say it’s certainly not as simple as mounting 2 cameras side-by-side and pressing a button. The attention to detail in WMB 3D is stunning. The ability to see immersive depth, and every minor detail without straining the eyes is mind blowing. Have I used enough flattering adjectives yet?

DESIGN
I’m all about the saying “less is more”. Taking any idea and condensing it into a design that fully describes what needs to be said, in a minimalist way. Too many shapes, colors, fonts and pictures can quickly turn a classy Dwell magazine into a Star magazine. Minimalist was the way to go with WMB 3D, mainly because the images were the #1 stars of the magazine. The bigger and less cluttered I could make the pictures, the better. Because of that, the articles are well written, but again, minimalist so the images aren’t covered by walls of text.

Font is by far the most important design aspect we had to decide, because on most pages they will simply contain an image and a few words. After going through hundreds upon hundreds of fonts, we agreed on the sleek rounded font Quicksand by Andrew Paglinawan. We chose this because 1. the curves match the WMB logo 2. the font family is quite large (7 variations) and 3. it is very user-friendly, modern and easy to read. To add a little spice when needed, we decided to use various fonts for section titles.

Designing with 3D images was new territory for me, but turned out to be more convenient than traditional 2D magazines. Funny thing is, you can literally place text anywhere on the image, and it WILL be able to read when viewing in 3D (unless the font is a very similar color to the background). This is because the font is being placed on the plane closest to your perspective, while the 3D image is “sunk” into the page, so you are actually reading the font as if it is floating above the image… therefore making it easier to read on busy backgrounds. Trust me once you put the glasses you will instantly see what I mean.

RESULTS
Thanks to Nick and the team’s hard work, Kim Kardashian blowing the lid off the premiere, and E! News leaking the details days before the release… the magazine has been a major success on it’s first week. But we could of told you that after documenting people’s reactions on the Las Vegas strip:

I’ll be happy to answer any questions, so feel free to comment. But overall, download this revolutionary magazine, I promise you will be amazed by the amount of detail Nick has gone through to deliver you the ultimate 3D magazine.
iPhone/iPad iOS version
Android version