41 UIUC SCHOOL OF ART & DESIGN
“The Ninth Letter is not a run-of-the-mill literary magazine,” notes Jennifer Gunji, assistant professor of Graphic Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). “Editorially, it has been exploring atypical expressions of fiction and nonfiction. As a design group, we try to heighten that approach.”

The design group she refers to is actually a class of undergraduate students at UIUC, where Ninth Letter is produced. The design process calls for each student in the class to read all the work in an issue. Pairs of senior and junior students are assigned a piece of fiction and nonfiction to design. Each issue of the magazine tends to have a theme, and the designs for articles reflect and enhance the motif, thereby creating a cohesive design vibe overall. In addition, Gunji points out, “All conceptual direction is discussed in class. No one works in isolation. We create a professional studio environment, pinning things up on the wall, looking at and criticizing each other’s work. It’s exciting for the students to learn not to be so protective of their work and to realize that because this is a nationally published magazine, there are repercussions that the students don’t normally see in their work.” by Laurel Saville