Publication Redesign

Across my career, I have advised and cultivated the redesigned style, creative structure and continuing editorial content.

BEFORE: The University News 
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AFTER: News 
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The University News student paper:

Each year, The University News (or as it’s better known, UNews) goes through a minor update as new editors take over and look to make their mark on the student publication. When talking with the editor-in-chief for the 2013-2014 school year, she wanted to do more than simple cosmetic fixes. The students felt the paper looked dated. And with mostly plain-text front covers, there was little to catch the eye. So, we made several changes, including:

  • Masthead

    Dropping the NYTimes style header for a bolder, more “USA Today” feeling mast. In doing so, we switched to the more common UNews moniker, and opened up the top of the page for more teasers and visual catches.

  • Design

    Involved the designers and graphic artists earlier in the production process, to create catchier front pages.

  • Branding

    Brought the new UNews head design onto each of the subheads (U-Arts, U-Sports), keeping a unified yet stand-alone look to each section.

  • Second Front

    Changed the paper from one block of pages to two, making a “second front” for the sports section and gaining color pages within the same price budget.

  • Font

    Updated the font type and sizing to match the more modern feel. Also opened up the columns for more air between the text.

BEFORE: Cornerstones 
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AFTER: Giving Magazine
(pdf available online)

Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation donor magazine:

The Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation approached us with a desire to update their donor magazine and create a product to get people excited about the foundation and breakthroughs at the hospital. They were not set on anything carrying over from the current magazine, including the name. After several meetings to discuss the mission, purpose and goals of the publication, we came up with a much different product. BJHF Giving helped increase hospital donations by $92,000 within the first year after the redesign, and continues to help generate a positive image for the organization. Some of the changes included:

  • New Name

    The group felt the intended audience didn’t understand the history with the Cornerstonesname, and wanted to be more straight-forward with the intent of the paper. We felt “Giving” spoke to the generocity and philanthropic nature of the audience, and was more inviting to the reader.

  • New Feel

    Gave the magazine less of a journal feel and more of a feature/artistic magazine look. This included larger imagery featured prominantly and more purposeful typography.

  • New Content

    Created specialized sections (Care, Hope, Thanks) in each publication to pinpoint the reasons for giving and match the mission of the Foundation.

  • New Focus

    Changed the focus of the stories from the science of the hospital to the people and faces it affected.

BEFORE: Let’s Talk Health 
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AFTER: Focus Magazine
(pdf available online)

Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital public magazine:

Let’s Talk Health was a template publication produced by an outside firm for the West County Hospital. While some stories were custom written by the marketing team, a vast majority of the content was generic. In it’s redesign, Focus brought the focus back to the community hospital and out of the shadow of it’s larger partner hospital downtown. Many residents in the West County area were surveyed, and stated they didn’t know the services of their local hospital, or preferred to go to the larger/father “big Barnes” because “it had better care,” even though the majority of physicians worked at both locations.

  • Layout

    One point of pride at BJWCH was it’s beautiful grounds and design. To stand out in a mailbox from the standard vertical/portrait magazines, and to highlight the beautiful imagery of the hospital, Focus magazine was turned to a landscape “brochure” feel.

  • Imagery

    Like the foundation’s redesign, we increased the imagery and human focus of the publication.

  • Personal Feel

    Even with more human features, the content of publication highlighted more of the breakthroughs and specialities located at the West County location.