Making the invisible layers of consumption visible

TOXIC is an editorial magazine we developed to make visible the often invisible systems behind our consumption. At its center are not only foods, but also the structures and mechanisms that shape what we see, buy, and take for granted every day.

TOXIC is about bringing transparency to our everyday consumption. Dense research, built into an editorial system that lets the information reach you slowly, so by the time you put it down, you actually care.

„Toxic" is a strangely compelling word. It circulates easily in headlines, in articles, trends on social media, describes relationships, workplaces, habits, even aesthetics. We call people toxic. We call behaviours toxic. So when did the word begin to mean more?

Originally, it was precise. It belonged to chemistry and medicine. It referred to measurable harm, a dose, a threshold, a reaction. Something entered a body and altered its balance. The damage was definable.

Today, the term drifts. It has moved from substance to metaphor, from lab language to cultural shorthand. It is used quickly, sometimes casually, sometimes for emphasis, sometimes because nothing else quite fits and we needed a word that felt urgent enough. And yet the earlier meaning hasn't disappeared. Toxicity still implies exposure, accumulation, consequence. It suggests something enters a system and interferes with it. Even when that system is no longer biological, but social, environmental, perceptual.

This tension between precision and dilution forms the starting point of the magazine. Rather than treating toxicity as something dramatic, the magazine approaches it as a layered condition.

The result is a magazine that closely interweaves information and design. It doesn't just convey content. It changes how content is perceived, laying the ground for a more conscious understanding of consumption and life.