The quarter-inch, bronze-hued magazine Helen Dear holds in her hands as she stands in front of 150-plus twenty- to sixty-somethings is, for lack of a better term, her baby. For nine months, Dear, the book’s editor, has overseen every aspect of the Windhover, from its design to its visual, literary and audio content to its production to its distribution — that’s here, now, Sunday night at the Crafts Center.

It even looks like Dear — or rather, the style she has developed during her last four years as a graphic design major.

The magazine is a collective effort of four designers, two literary and audio editors, a production assistant and an entire body of students, faculty and alumni. The editors filtered through hundreds of literary, visual and audio submissions to a final 115 pieces. The designers “played off each other’s strengths,” Dear said, to produce a muted, earth-toned book that maximized the effect not of the design, but the artists’ content.

“We wanted it to be contemporary and traditional,” she said. “We were hoping to shift the emphasis away from the design of the magazine and onto the literature and work.”

This year’s magazine features literary content more prominently than its recent predecessors, Dear said.

“One of the things I’m most proud of is the amount of literary pieces. A big critique in years past was that there wasn’t enough,” she said. “I had to fight myself by moving away from putting in a lot of artwork to focusing on literary content, which is the main purpose of Windhover.”

Jeremy Purser, one of Windhover’s designers, said the book achieves that goal.

“I wouldn’t really want someone to look at this book and say, ‘Oh, this is really well designed.’ It’s important to us as designers to design well, but more important that it’s a showcase for the work,” Purser, a junior in graphic design, said.

Although students at the event — some of whom read poems and played guitar in front of the crowd, another who read a piece of creative nonfiction — did notice the design, they mainly referred to the magazine’s overall effect.

Tyler Haggard, a senior in creative writing who said he walked into the release for extra credit — “I got two absences erased” — said the book is a “creative pool” he “didn’t even know existed.”

“I love seeing something of this quality coming out of something I’m associated with,” Haggard, who also performed, said. “The second I was handed this book, I thought, ‘This looks like something I would buy at Barnes & Noble for $15.'”

Christine Copper, a senior in communication who came to the event to support friends who worked on and were published in the book, agreed.

“They did a good job of combining aesthetics and making it pretty,” she said, “but also having a lot of good content.”

Although the posters and Facebook messages emphasized “free snackies,” Laura Maruzzella, a senior in art and design, said many people came for the snacks and “then they stay when they see what’s going on.”

This is Maruzzella’s fourth release party, and she said she has never seen such a crowd.

“[The turnout] is surprising because we’re not seen as a humanities school,” she said. “We’re recognized as an engineering- and science-oriented school.”

Amanda Garner, a senior in English education who participated in a poetry reading, said she was nervous before heading up to the podium — the crowd was much larger than anticipated.

“I expected it to be smaller,” she said, “but I think it’s pretty awesome. Everyone respects everyone else. It’s a free space to share what you want to, good or bad.”

Dear particularly appreciated the atmosphere.

“Windhover’s purpose is to be read and enjoyed by everyone,” she said. “It’s nice to see people read it and hear people enjoy it.”

Those whose work was published in the magazine were especially excited.

Maruzzella likened the effect of opening the book and seeing her work inside to “meeting your baby for the first time.”