Veronica Corzo-Duchardt, design lead, in collaboration with Jessica De Jesus and Margot Harrington
Bitch Media publishes Bitch, an independent, quarterly magazine with the tagline “a feminist response to pop culture.” In 2018 they rebranded their monthly membership program as The Rage—a dramatic shift from the previous, cheerful B-Hive branding. The name doubles down on anger, “the most untouchable aspect of respectability for those of us in marginalized communities,” per editor-in-chief Evette Dionne. The flexible design system for The Rage centers around Cortado, set in all caps and individually distorted for different applications such as totes, mugs, bookmarks, and membership cards.
Corresponding with the new system, Bitch released “The Future Is Furious,” a mini-issue “about women’s anger—and, more specifically, about how that anger is policed, dismissed, and overlooked” (PDF download). Interior pages pair Cortado (undistorted) with Lelo and Tiempos. The design team shared this note by email:
During our research phase of the rebrand, we were heavily influenced by hand lettering of protest posters and 80’s and 90’s punk aesthetics. When searching for a typeface we looked for something that felt hand-lettered, elevated and had a bit of punk attitude and urgency, Cortado stuck a perfect balance of personality and edge for the Rage Rebranding. For the final logo Corzo-Duchardt manipulated print outs of Cortado on an old photocopier to push the emotion of anger and urgency even further.
“The Future Is Furious” cover lettering (Jessica De Jesus, design lead)
“The Future Is Furious” interior spread (Jessica De Jesus, design lead)
“The Future Is Furious” interior spread (Jessica De Jesus, design lead)
“The Future Is Furious” interior spread (Jessica De Jesus, design lead)
“The Future Is Furious” interior spread (Jessica De Jesus, design lead)
3 Comments on “The Rage”
It’s just so good!
Is that Interstate used for the title of the magazine?
Spot on, Mike! The bitch logo is indeed in Interstate Bold. It wasn’t included here because this post focuses on the membership program The Rage.