Nathalie Kirsheh

A profile story on Rihanna photographed by Craig McDean for the February 2010 issue of W Magazine.

Nathalie Kirsheh: My design process consists of a set of routine exercises—similar to “warming up”--I became highly accustomed to this while working under Edward Leida’s charge during my time with W. I always start by familiarizing myself with the headline and its letterforms, and I take into consideration how I may connect them with the image (figuratively or literally.) In this case, a combination of Rihanna’s styling in this portrait and her "good-girl-bad-girl” spirit were distinct trials.

After taking a moment away from the explorations and revisiting them, I decided to avoid type treatments that may clash or fight with the imagery and decided on clean beautifully set type and added a subtle trick/nuance. Although I felt like the world was my oyster designing spreads for W, I had to know when to stop or perhaps know when to take a few steps back.