Magazines & Magazine Redesigns
Overview
You understand that stewardship and friendraising are necessary components for advancing your institution, and you believe a magazine is key to your strategy of remaining top-of-mind — and top of coffee table — with your audiences.
Or perhaps your organization’s lead publication is due for a strategic, cosmetic and tactical makeover. You’re looking to use new presentation formats and digital integration to your organization’s advantage.
Process
We can’t over-emphasize the importance of the partnership between editorial and design for a successful magazine, and the partnership between agency and institution for a successful project. Zehno’s core team for magazine engagements includes a lead strategist, art director and editorial director. We’ll work closely with your in-house communications, design and editorial resources.
We approach the work in four phases:
- The creation of a position paper and grid. The former provides the strategic underpinnings for your flagship publication, while the grid translates that strategy into a tangible vision of how that will play out through sections and spreads.
- If this is a first project with Zehno, the position paper process will also include a site visit and broader discovery.
- A readership survey is usually recommended during this phase as well.
- The prototyping phase, where the Zehno and client creative teams work through rounds of covers, sample feature and section structures, visual design and production specs. This phase is also where we’ll explore interactivity and best-fit application for the web, social, mobile and tablet formats.
- The template preparation and documentation phase, where stylesheets, color palettes and all production assets are reviewed and consolidated for maximum ease of use. Zehno can also prepare a style guide including word counts, colors palettes, etc., as well as guidance on editorial and design approaches.
- The support phase. Some clients have Zehno turn over the templates to the in-house team and ask us to provide consultation on an as-needed basis. Other clients use Zehno as their external creative, editorial and production team, and we produce each issue for (but always in consultation with) them.
Time Frame & Cost
A position paper and grid usually follow within six to eight weeks of acceptance of our proposal. Total cost for this first phase is typically $20,000–$35,000, depending on whether or not this is a first project with Zehno.
The prototype phase follows, usually taking eight to 10 weeks. Total cost for this phase ranges from $20,000–$50,000 depending on the length of the publication and the depth of integration with non-print formats.
The template preparation and documentation phase usually ranges from $7,000–$15,000, again depending on the length of the publication.
Each issue of a magazine takes three to four months to produce after an editorial outline is approved. Execution cost is highly variable and depends on creative and production specifications.