Perspecta has a distinctive tradition as the oldest student-edited architectural journal in the United States. Each year, different editors are selected among candidates from the Yale School of Architecture, and its designers are chosen from the Graphic Design Department of the Yale School of Art.
The 36th issue of Perspecta, “Juxtapositions," is unique in that the subtitle doesn’t describe an umbrella theme, but rather the way its articles, all different in subject matter and tone, are organized, to yield unexpected readings and effects in their adjacencies.
For its academic nature and limited circulation, marketability has never been an issue in the design of Perspecta 36. The journal’s editorial approach, which emphasized accidents and overlaps, guided the design decisions. Thus, a diagram of the contents, showing the length of each article and its particular word frequencies, reveals the unintended relations between the articles. Moreover, the diagram is split into two, one part printed on the thin dust jacket and the other on the cover: design is incomplete until they are physically juxtaposed. Inside, essays are interspersed with more informal “conversations,” set in the bottom margin. Finally, some paintings and photographs are printed on the same thin paper used for the dust jacket, and placed between signatures for accidental effects.

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