New Contrast Literary Journal, currently guest-edited by Gabeba Baderoon, commissioned Stoep Collective to support the journal through a new phase of editorial and cultural renewal.

Rather than approaching the publication as a surface redesign, Stoep worked with the journal as a living archive of voices, forms, histories and contemporary urgencies, which required structure and renewed coherence.

THE PROBLEM

New Contrast has a significant inheritance and place in the wider African literary world. As South Africa’s oldest literary journal, the challenge was to honour its illustrious history and national importance, while developing a deeper continuity between issues that would appeal to a contemporary readership.

WHAT WE DID

Stoep Collective provided editorial stewardship across the magazine’s renewal

Our work focused on the relationship between structure, tone and reader experience, ensuring that the journal’s identity was visually translated with sensitivity, while providing enough authority to continue attracting readers from around the world.

THE DIFFERENCE

The result is a pan-African literary journal that can hold its own with writers and readers across the globe. Praised for its innovation and support for emergent and established literary voices alike, New Contrast’s renewed presence has improved funding opportunities, empowered the editorial team and facilitated stronger working relationships between the literary board and editorial members.