"We are visual storytellers": studio Córdova Canillas talks us through the redesign of Fucking Young! magazine

Design studio Córdova Canillas is a constant source of inspiration. We previously featured the studio for its work with Fuet magazine, Creatives’ Club and the time when the team shared an insight into how the studio began. More recently, Diego Cordova and Marti Canillas channelled their expertise into a completely fresh redesign of Fucking Young! magazine. 

“Sex sells. Sex impacts. Sex is life. It’s the reason we’re all here,” says Fucking Young! on their introduction to the latest issue. Riddled with highly sexual editorials and powerful words highlighting the need to fight against conservative constraints, the pages of Sex are filled to the brim with “hot content”. With contributors such as Allan Hamitouche, Asaf Einy, Axl Jansen, Filip Custic, Gorka Postigo, Michiel Meewis and many others, this is a hub for incredible voices and sharp, bold and fresh design.

The 10th edition of Fucking Young!’s Sex issue was created in search for a stronger mark and energy that would pinpoint the magazine in a new, forward-thinking direction. “On one hand the editors wanted to have a new design for the anniversary issue, something that looked like the next step of the current design,” Córdova Canillas tells It’s Nice That. “On the other hand, through researching lots of new references, we found old versions of Rosicrucian from the 19th century and some incunable books from the 1500s — we wanted to do something fresh that was still romantic.”

Córdova Canillas has worked alongside FY! since its sixth edition Zodiac to marry content with design. “This new issue distinguishes itself from the last in the capability to evolve — everything in this layout is transitional to the next issue,” says the studio. “We have treated all content separately but with some constants in mind: sometimes the layout, sometimes typography. We ignore the idea of fitting everything into general design guide lines to explore a more tailor-made design that fits with the main concept.”

“Graphic design is a vehicle that could step behind the text, while photography could step forward or vice versa.  Editorial design is about the coordination between these different elements and it’s perceived as part of something bigger… It’s what we call ‘the rhythm’,” Córdova Canillas explains. 

Córdova Canillas describes its approach as “humorous”, something they intended from the offset due to their attention to “communicational skills of our contents and the perception of our audience”. Their design is all about perception, how the audience will interpret the meaning and what the content is trying to convey. “We decide how the audience will read the content so in this case we are visual storytellers."