Field Notes.

Field Notes is a self-initiated identity study for a fictional field-research journal. The brief I set myself was simple: make scientific observation feel human without losing its rigour.

The system is built from one primitive — a dot whose radius responds to distance from a focal point. Everything else (covers, spines, section dividers, social templates) is a variation of that rule.

Create an identity that can hold dense academic content while remaining recognisable at thumbnail scale; design a flexible system that a small editorial team could extend without a designer in the room.

The dot matrix behaves like a lens: dense at the point of observation, quiet at the edges. Paired with a single serif for content and a mono for annotations, the identity reads as an instrument rather than decoration.

I began with analogue studies — ink dots on grid paper — then rebuilt the most promising rule as a parametric system. Three cover directions were tested against real article layouts. The final route uses the matrix as a structural device, not a texture: margins, folios and section marks all inherit its rhythm.

A complete identity toolkit: an adaptive dot-matrix generator, wordmark, a four-level typographic scale, print specifications for two paper stocks, and templates for covers, article openers and social announcements.