We’ve just recently moved past the one-year anniversary of operating under new brand standards. The anniversary coincided with the launch of a redesigned brand website that is easier to navigate and puts more resources in the hands of those who need them. These are all good things.
While we are undoubtedly proud of the work done to establish the standards, there are still many steps to be taken to get to where we want to be. One of the next ones involves a redesign of all publications that are produced by University Communications. The reorganization that merged the teams from UC, the Alumni Association and Foundation together also brought a number of publications under one umbrella.
Generally, those publications look like they were produced by different teams with different goals. Our aim is to bring them more in line with each other and Ohio State’s overall brand guidelines.
While we are still developing a timeline for roll-out of some of these redesigns, we do know that Ohio State Alumni Magazine will have a new look beginning with its November/December edition.
The magazine was last redesigned in 2005. Since then we’ve tweaked here and there, but this will be the first major overhaul since ’05. I think we all agree that the magazine is long overdue for a makeover.
We are currently in the beginning stages of that redesign. We’ve already tackled internal auditing of magazine content, shared ideas of other magazines we like and are currently using the CASE magazine survey to ask our readership what it thinks of the publication. This information will form the foundation for the work that lies ahead.