Yesterday I came across a website that really caught my eye. I was browsing through some CSS galleries and come across a very colourful and very illustrative site that went by the name of New Sugar Magazine. I was instantly drawn in and I felt compelled to tell you why.

New Sugar Magazine is a PDF magazine that showcases some of the very best graphic design and illustration from around the world. The magazine allows visitors to their site to submit their own work with a chance to possibly be featured in the next issue. The magazine itself is full of high class work, which the designers of the site have decided to showcase on the site. This makes the site very colourful with lots of striking pieces of work to look at.

If I’m honest, it took me a little while to actually work out what the site was for. From a usability point of view it could be argued that the call for submissions is the most striking aspect of the site and that it may be a good idea to give the user an idea of what they would be submitting to first.

Anyway, once I had worked out exactly what I was looking at I made sure I spent some time really taking in the beauties on offer. The background pattern is one aspect that really caught my eye. It’s very subtle and uses very simplistic illustration but it fits nicely with the personality of the site.

I also really like the bold typeface they have chosen for their titles. It really stands out and draws attention very effectively. They have also chosen a high contrast colour for these titles adding to their striking appeal.

The site is split into a series of content pods, with each being given a bold cream border. In my opinion, this gives the site a slightly retro feel and for some reason makes me think of the Carsonified site.

There is a great deal of imagery used throughout the site, which is what you would expect from a site about a design magazine. This adds lots of points of interest on the pages as images tend to be the things a user will scan first.

To summarize, the site is full of interesting illustration, bold colours and is very pleasing on the eye. What do you think of it? Do you agree with me or do you have any suggestions for how you would improve it? I’d love to read your opinions.

Go visit the site now and make up your own mind.

Critique Agent: "AtiKuSDesign"  -  http://www.twitter.com/atikusdesign

AtiKuSDesign is the creator and editor of the web and graphic design inspiration blog D-Lists. He lives and breathes design, spending 90% of his life online looking at a screen, finding inspiration everywhere. To add to his passion for design he is an experienced front-end and wordpress developer. Follow him on twitter or follow his complete set of online ramblings via his flavors page More posts by this author.