QUARTO CREATIVE
Signature
Signature was the bi-monthly member publication of the Associations, Media & Publishing Network, a subsidiary of The Software & Information Industry Association. As such, it was a magazine for professionals who make … well, magazines.
At the outset of the redesign process, it had been so long since the magazine’s previous redesign that no one could remember when (or if ) it had happened. That fact, in and of itself, demonstrated the need for a redesign; magazines of this frequency that don’t evolve on at least a two-year cycle run the risk of losing their audiences. When the covers were peeled back, structural issues revealed themselves as well.
The “old” Signature leaned into the jargon of its constituency, with department titles like “Under the Covers” or “Short Runs.” But then other departments, like “Members Only” or “Profiles in Publishing” were more generically titled, creating an inconsistent presentation. And none of them included a tagline, communicating to readers the intended brand promise of each section.
Departments are the backbone of any successful publication program. They’re the signposts that keep readers turning pages and coming back, issue after issue. Signature had strong branding and engaging feature articles; the departments needed to rise to the same level.
What story is Signature telling? The Inside Story. It’s a narrative of magazine-making as told by magazine-makers. The titles, taglines and design elements would need to speak directly to that group’s everyday experiences.
The departments would now be grouped in the front of the book, leading to an overarching section brand that would tie those disparate content vehicles together. Two different versions were developed:
The gradual disappearance of newspapers over the past decades has led to the infiltration of that medium’s design elements into other forms of publishing. That development would be acknowledged through our typography and color palettes. The new Signature would consist of weighty typefaces with a hint of distortion, to soak up the black ink and give the impression of a pre-digital press experience.
Signature’s new color palette would be built on the native forms of the four printing colors: cyan, magenta, yellow and black:
Yellow proved to be especially useful as an access point and navigational tool:
Signature’s contributor photos tended to vary widely in style and quality. A 1-color linescreen effect would level the playing field among the photos. Given that the contributors were the very same people that made up Signature’s primary audience, the magazine offered additional information about them, personalizing them for their peers and enticing others to take the leap to contribute.
With the departments and features divided so evenly in the two halves of the book, a definitive dividing line between the front-of-book departments and the feature well seemed appropriate. The introduction of an interior cover page gave readers a clear sense of the nature of the stories to follow as well as the cue that the magazine was transitioning from short- to long-form content. As a final grace note, the page’s tagline (like the feature articles) would change every issue, offering sardonic commentary on the publishing experience.
