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to a Successful Redesign
A redesign can be the best—or worst—thing to happen to your maga-
zine in years. Two design consultants who speak frequently about re-
designs at publishing industry events discuss how to navigate the
process for the best results.
Eleven Steps…
Periodically evaluate
the magazine’s design.
Rob Sugar, president of Auras Design in Silver Spring,
Maryland, recommends that clients evaluate the de-
sign of their publications about every five years. It’s
time for an overhaul if (1) editorial changes create a
new structure for the publication, (2) the publisher
wants to reach a different audience, (3) technological
or cultural advances alter editorial content, (4) a new
business plan repositions the media strategy, (5) new
competitors require the magazine to reposition itself
in a niche, or (6) the creative team begins experiencing
boredom, repetition, or difficulty fitting new ideas into
the current format.
Evaluate the magazine’s mission.
If you don’t have a written mission statement for your
magazine, develop one that defines content, structure,
and plans for growth, says Sugar. Then study the mag-
azine according to the mission, asking how well the
current design serves the reader and what needs to be
changed to engage the reader better. Also, identify
what it is about your publication that sets you apart
from your competition. “Editors and designers ought to
ask, ‘What unique content and structure in features
and departments define our vision?’” says Sugar.
Align the editorial, design,
and business teams.
A redesign shouldn’t cover the magazine’s look and
feel only. It should reflect a reevaluation of the maga-
zine’s editorial content and business plan as well, says
John Johanek, coprincipal of Ayers/Johanek Publication
Design in Bozeman, Montana. A new palette, grid, and
set of typefaces mean little if they don’t mirror updates
in editorial focus or marketing and demographics. “If
you haven’t fully analyzed your objectives, you’re just
putting a new look on old problems,” Johanek says.
Use the redesign as a way to rethink the magazine as
a whole, and hold frequent meetings with editorial
and business departments to be sure everybody is
headed in the same direction.
Put function before form.
Make all decisions about your design for concrete rea-
sons based on research and knowledge of the maga-
zine’s goals. “A clear idea of the publication’s function
is often the source of inspiration for me,” says Sugar.
“There is a distinct difference between design as orna-
mentation and design as structure—just like in archi-
tecture—and revealing the structure of a publication is
the designer’s first duty. A new reader should be able
to pick up any copy of the magazine and understand it
from a glance through the book, even without looking
at the contents page.”
left
GQ
's redesign allowed designers to refocus
emphasis on imagery and make layouts less about the
type, which helped reinstate a feeling of consistency.
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Cull inspiration from other sources.
You learn a great deal about the niche you serve by
studying your competition during a redesign—but be
careful when looking to other magazines for design
ideas. “I call it the ugly duckling syndrome,” says Johanek.
“It’s an easy trap to look at other magazines and grab
the things you like for your own design. But you end up
with a hodgepodge of elements that don’t work well out
of context.” A healthier way to find inspiration, he says,
is to look outside publishing for design ideas—to fash-
ion, art, architecture, or advertising, for example.
Consider outside design firms.
If you’re like most art departments, you barely have
enough time to close your latest issue, let alone plan
and implement a full redesign. But time isn’t the only
reason for bringing in design consultants. “A lot of mag-
azines are strapped with company history and feel lim-
ited by what they’ve never been allowed to do,” says
Johanek. “Outside companies may feel the freedom to
be more experimental.” When interviewing outside de-
sign firms, Sugar recommends looking closely at their
previous work—before and after samples, the ques-
tions they consider, and the order the redesign takes.
Also ask about their philosophy of redesigns in general
and how much they’re willing to tackle. “It should be
expected that a design firm will be involved with edito-
rial structure, even to the level of suggesting depart-
ments and editorial initiatives,” Sugar says.
Get your inside designers involved.
Of course, artists who have worked on a magazine for
years may feel territorial about letting consultants take
the reins. “You’re going to run into a problem if the art
department isn’t made part of the redesign,” says Jo-
hanek. “Everyone needs to be part of the final prod-
uct.” Hold frequent meetings between in-house artists
and contracted designers. Let everybody review each
style sheet and mockup as it’s finished and allow them
to discuss the meaning behind design choices with
consultants. Then, when it’s time for the art staff to
take over the new design for regular implementation,
they can interpret the design as it was intended.
Prepare readers for the redesign.
It’s important to let readers know the redesign is com-
ing and why. At the least, an editorial should explain
the reasoning and emphasize the positive aspects of
the new look. “Remembering that a magazine is an on-
going conversation with its readership, a relaunch
ought to invite the readership behind the scenes to en-
courage their continued participation,” says Sugar.
Some magazines do teasers, showing half the new
logo and half the old one on the cover of the issue pre-
vious to the redesign. No matter how you approach the
subject, stay positive. “You want to avoid anything that
smacks of apologizing,” says Johanek.
Market the redesign
to your advertisers.
The launch of a redesign is a good opportunity to sell
extra ad space. “Sales reps should use the redesign as
a tool,” says Johanek. “They can promote it as a special
issue, talking up the fact that it will have a longer
shelf life and a bigger press run. The ideal situation is
that you generate enough bonus revenue to offset the
cost of the redesign.” Also don’t forget to communi-
cate the occasion to the rest of the world, Johanek
says. Send press releases to
Folio:
and other trade
journals or newspapers.
Do your research.
If time and budget allow, you may want to conduct
focus groups and surveys with long-time readers, the
magazine’s staff, and a few people who are unfamiliar
with the magazine. “The goals of the survey are to find
out how much people remember the structure of the
publication and what they found the most—and
least—intriguing,” says Sugar. One problem with
groups is that readers often pinpoint problems without
suggesting solutions. Another is that feedback may
stray radically from the designers’ original intent. “You
have to balance the focus groups with good judgment
and not be totally swayed by opinions,” says Johanek.
Stick with the redesign
once it’s launched.
Roll out the redesign all at once in a single issue, ac-
cepting that you will inevitably hear negative com-
ments from at least a few readers. If you’ve done your
research, the new design should be right on target and
only minor changes should be necessary. “Tweaking is
an unavoidable part of redesigns,” says Sugar. “Some
ideas simply don’t work when applied to real-world
deadlines or budgets.” But unless readers lash out vio-
lently against the new design, make your adjustments
without announcing you’re doing it. “Letting the con-
versation play itself out in a letters department is a
good approach to keeping reader input alive but con-
fined and, after a few issues, even that can be dis-
pensed with,” Sugar says.
above Design tweaks during
Real Simple
's first year
of publication were responses to comments by readers
that the magazine was too simple to apply to readers
with chaotic lives. The magazine's designers made
efforts to include more personal images and unex-
pected departures in visuals.
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