Redesign

Challenge

HFMA, Healthcare Financial Management Association, is all about the CFOs of healthcare. While that may not sound exciting to everyone, the internal audience wanted their semi-monthly publication to reflect their own excitement in the industry.

The client wanted to take the internal association magazine and make it less like a marketing journal and more like an editorial magazine. It had already gone through a round of ideation with Mario Garcîa — famed media consultant — when I got my hands on it. The idea was to make it a more easily read, chunks of information with more visual elements. My task was to take what was already done and translate it into a more sustainable format without losing its pizzazz. 

Solution

Take prototypes and make monthly templates and prototypes that content creation could be built around. Create a nameplate and cover design strategy, and refine inside nameplates, templates, and style guides.

Results

The magazine is an exciting monthly staple within the association — one that members look forward to seeing and reading about their peers. It also won accolades at 2021 SIIA Excel Awards: Bronze award for design excellence and Gold award for the redesign.

Challenge

The client wanted to create a magazine/ print publication brand that stands out in a crowded market and relates to an umbrella that includes marketplace events for an LGBT+ audience in Middle Tennessee. Transitioning from an existing brand, the challenge aimed to create a look that is fresh, edgy, and attracts a younger audience while encouraging LGBT+ owned businesses and entrepreneurs to use the publication and brand as a way to build their own audience.

Solution

The design is married to the strategy: Build upon relationships with the existing LGBT+ chamber and other established businesses by creating space in the print publication tailored specifically for them. This includes sponsored content pages that include the businesses’ logo at the top and a banner ad at the bottom. The content on the page is paid. Social photo pages are made specifically for bars and clubs to show off recent patrons with their logo at the top of the page. A business directory section includes listings for businesses but also includes paid opportunities for profiles that include the business’ logo and tailored content. Other sales opportunities include tiers of sponsorships that have built-in print advertising.

Results

The magazine continues to launch throughout the Middle Tennessee area, receiving raves and roves of advertising dollars.

Challenge

Re-invigorate the market to engage young creative communities that included Millennials, newcomers, and up-and-comers in the Nashville area.

Solution

In 2014, The Tennessean created a project called 12th & Broad, an experiment in pushing boundaries of print along with marketing and sales. The department was essentially an events-based initiative that included a “print journal.” The content was meant to be the community’s voice and it was paired with signature events made to entice the growing arts community. The tactic took on a strategy more like what radio would do with promotions by hosting signature events but also lending its brand and audience to existing events to pull an audience.

Results

The community became invested in the brand by having experiences to engage in rather than the more passive existing print strategy.

Challenge

A local newspaper had several magazine brands that were published once a year (one each quarter, plus some). The sales staff was having trouble selling each brand, as advertisers were confused by what each one was and when. The publications included a women’s magazine, a summer "things to do" magazine, young professionals magazine, a weddings magazine, a general lifestyles magazine, and a newcomer’s magazine. Additionally, there was a newer magazine in the market that most advertisers preferred and had more brand recognition with.

Solution

Create an umbrella brand and develop each of these niche topics as cover stories instead of individual publications. The magazine would have more freedom to move topics around and advertisers would have more brand recognition associated with it. The new nameplate and design would compete with the newer competing magazine in the market.

Results

Advertising representatives were able to sell a more focused brand that made sense to the market. An established content strategy helped advertisers recognize and see growth potential. Additional plans for events attached to each editorial topic gave more sales opportunities and ways to connect advertisers with their customers.

 Challenge

This challenge meets two directives: Assist site clients with better, more dynamic ways to promote their print product by promoting the designers’ existing stellar print work, and to get a group of print designers to think about their work in more exciting, not so static ways. I had weekly discussions and brainstormings about taking what we were already designing for print and applying it to social media animations, videos, and other out-of-the-box ideas.

Solution

Call weekly discussions and brainstorming sessions to come up with ideas of things we could do to help. Look at existing accounts and simple social media animations for what inspires us and what we like, and discuss achievable goals.

Results

The team had a blast dreaming up topics to be all moving and shaking about … including videos made for our various print clients to promote their print editions. The resulting work ranged from simple animated gifs to longer storytelling arcs paired with holidays. A team of print publication designers became committed to being visual storytellers — storyboard artists and architects — for their clients and their brands.