A rare adventure in our industry these days is The Mill Trip. I’d been on one back in the day, when I was just starting my career in Chicago. That trip was to a coated mill producing white paper, so I nearly went off the deckled edge when I was invited by Debbie of xpedx and Randy of Neenah Paper to travel to Wisconsin on October 8th. Completing the entourage were print designers Jeff of Cultivator and Jorge of Cactus, two print designers as passionate as I about paper and its potential. And so with carry-ons in hand at Gate B90, the designer geekfest was officially underway. Our drive from Madison to Steven’s Point was a trip down memory lane for me, as it was the same route I’d driven countless times to a family cabin when living in Chicago. The flat, open landscape with light blue sky and long clouds reminded me of growing up in Illinois. But it wasn’t long before things got exciting. First Jeff piped up from the ‘way back’ of the van, “I think I just saw a roll-over.” Sure enough, a minivan has swerved off the other side of the highway into the wide,
Over the years, EnZed has been asked to redesign a wide range of publications. Some simply have been tired—dated in appearance. Others have looked for a new face to improve readership by communicating more clearly. C3 Magazine is a strong case of the second. In its original format, C3 Magazine—The University of Colorado Cancer Center’s donor publication—felt a little heavy. There were many colored backgrounds and solid copy columns dominated. The Cancer Center clearly had great stories to share, but they needed to work harder if they were to captivate additional donors. When analyzing the existing design, we began by first focused on how to improve the way readers navigated the information. One of the parameters set was to keep the current amount of content within the same page count and size. So we became the “What Not To Wear” style experts—hiding bulges and enhancing best attributes. Let the make over begin! OUR STATED OBJECTIVES: 1. Increase reader interest Capture the SKIMMER. Short subheads and easy-to-read sidebars communicate more messages than headlines alone, enticing them in. Convert the SELECTIVE READER. The speed reader will have time to read more articles if they are “blocked” into chunks that are quickly