The Journal of the Royal New Zealand Air Force is a collection of air power papers, essays, articles and book reviews, published biannually and intended to serve as an academic forum for the presentation and stimulation of critical thinking, debate and education on air power.​​​​​​​

It’s dense.

Previous editions of the Journal didn’t have the visual language to match the intellectual ambition. The brief was simple, make it something people would want to read.

Ride the line between academic journal and editorial publication. To embrace the serious nature of the content and enable the reader the choice of diving into the minutia or flickering through at leisure. Emphasising the density with breaths of white space between sections and large, impactful imagery.

The RNZAF has a well-crafted, robust visual identity. Working within it rather than against it, elements were meticulously tested and selected that would make the Journal soar. In the end, two colours from the palette were used, sky blue as a feature for the cover and headings, navy for body and contrast. Blueprint style aircraft wings span the sky-blue cover, front to back. Photography is visually split, archival images in black and white and contemporary scenes in full colour. Elements follow a grid with military precision. Printed and distributed across New Zealand in a 210 × 210mm square format, a deliberate shift to being less Journal, more coffee table piece—something to pick up and put down at leisure.

As my first professional project, I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome. The Editorial Team were delighted with the finished product, and subsequent editions of the Journal follow the same creative direction.