It all starts with the editorial content. What are the stories that will immerse the audience in the subject matter? This factor is especially important for member-based publications. The good news is you have the audience—now you just have to inform them, engage them, and tell them things they don’t already know.

If the editorial content is engaging, it is important that the visuals are as well. This means art-directing photographers to capture the meaning behind an article, whether it is through a portrait shoot or a photo essay. Take time to research and find imagery that is unexpected and spectacular. Work with illustrators to create images that add a layer to the story.

Great design grows from good content—when the designer truly connects with the edit to bring meaning to the surface. It is this synergy that ultimately engages the reader and will bring attention to your publication—including awards.

But it doesn’t end there. The quality of the final product is what makes a print publication unique. It is important that paper stock and printing are not short-changed. If the budget is an issue, the “less is more” approach should be used—less pages, more quality.

Minnesota Magazine & Publications Association 2009 Summit & Expo
May 21–22

1. Design and Edit. There is nothing as powerful as a layout that has a well-conceived connection between edit and art. Work closely with your editors to connect the story to the design. An evocative headline and descriptive deck should capture the reader and round out the visual elements.

2. Typography. Explore typographic solutions to a design. Look at pushing the limits of your type palette—roman, bold, italic, all caps, all lowercase, large, small, serif and sans serif combined. Play around. And if you’re looking for a unique headline font, there are hundreds of beautiful, well-designed fonts to choose from. Two of our favorite foundries are Font Bureau and Hoefler & Frère-Jones.

3. Design Basics. Scale. Cropping. Negative space. You may not have used these terms since college, but getting back to basics can bring new life to your designs.

4. Imagery. Rules, boxes, dingbats, and graphic forms can illustrate concepts and help create dynamic designs. And while you don’t want to replace professional-quality photography completely, there are some budget-conscious ways to add imagery to your layouts: Consider creating your own images. Combine a selection of photos to make an energetic collage (check out New York magazine’s Party Lines section as an example). If your department has a good digital camera, you can shoot still-life photographs to act as backdrops for your designs. Placing items directly on your scanner can lead to interesting results as well.

5. Color. Last but not least, color can add richness and meaning to a design. Expand the application of your publication’s color palette to keep the pages fresh and inviting. Look at working with colors that have a similar value range so the design doesn’t become like a rainbow. Stay away from introducing new colors, or you will end up expanding your palette too much and watering down your publication’s brand.

1. Conversation. The problem with a print-only publication is that the conversation is primarily one-way. The writers and editors publish information for the audience; the audience reads and rarely responds. Even when people write in to the editor, it is not a conversation but a response. Taking your publication online allows you to build your reader community by encouraging them to participate in the conversation via social-networking functions such as commenting.
2. Time. There is no way that print can keep up with the speed of interactive media. You may want to create a digital publication that allows the audience to subscribe to a feed so the content can be streamed to an application like Google Reader or My Yahoo Reader. This is the new new delivery.
3. Cost. With the rising cost of paper and postage, you might want to consider downsizing your print publication and focusing instead on creating a robust interactive counterpart. Farewell Christian Science Monitor print version.
4. Exposure. Searchability, sharing, and social networking can build exposure for your publication and organization. This is especially important for circulation-based publications that rely on large readerships. Embrace the wisdom-of-crowds theory. Just ask those Threadless guys.
5. Analysis. Ever wonder what content your readers are finding most interesting? Previously that question could only be answered through market research techniques such as direct mail and focus groups, both of which can be costly. A well-developed companion website allows you to view the user activity and make adjustments based on real data, not vague survey questions.

The Redesign
1. Planning and creative strategy. Kick the project off with an in-depth meeting to review mission, audience, advertisers, circulation, distribution, products, current design, goals of redesign. The design firm needs as much information as possible to create a successful design. Do not rush this meeting. Take time and make sure all of the key players are in attendance.

2. Redesign process. This is one of the hardest points of the process for the client and the most rewarding for the design firm. The publication team has done its work: researched and interviewed design firms; selected a firm; gathered and prepared materials noted above; and held an in-depth strategy meeting. Now it is time to let go and let the design firm do its job.

3. Presentation expectations. When it’s time to review designs, make sure the significant components of your publication (logotype, cover, table of contents, departments, columns, anything that is unique to your publication) are included in the initial presentation. This information should have been clarified in the Request for Proposal so there is no miscommunication.

4. Deliverables. After the design has been reviewed, revised, and finalized, the design firm will create templates with style and color palettes and an in-depth style guide—these are must-haves at the completion of a redesign. Do not cut corners and accept only designed pages that the in-house design team to decipher.

5. Launch issue. To ensure the most complete redesign, work with your redesign firm for at least the first issue of the redesign. If budget allows have them design the first issue as an off-site art department so they can work through any last-minute, unexpected details. At minimum, have the firm review PDFs during the design process to ensure that the templates and style guide are being followed appropriately.