Senses of Place

Layout Design ︎ Afar 
Fall 2025
Creative Director: Maili Holiman
Photographer: Ivana Cajina

On his first visit to Peru—and his first group tour—contributing writer Ryan Knighton discovers that adventure comes in many, many forms.

With a blind writer, it was really important that this layout showcased the different way in which a person might take in their surroundings, espiecially since magazines are predominantly a visual experience. With no control over the paper weight, its tactility, or its scent, I focused on what visuals remove you from the bigger picture, make you focus on the details, but still give the reader a sense of place.

The focus on this story was the tactility and surrounding atmosphere of Peru. With photography, we leaned into the details that Knighton mentions, zooming into those moments and scaling back photography of vistas, obsucring some  of them behind duotones so the reader has to work a little harder. With the type, the display copy when through a physical process. Larger display was printed out and scanned back in, retaining its elegance but gaining a little more personal touch. Smaller display was typed out on a typewriter.