‘City News’ would look good on a newsstand

 

The topics covered in City of Hope’s semiannual magazine are serious and often clinical, addressing advances in cancer research, the fight against diabetes, and a host of other diseases. 

As its name suggests, though, City of Hope has a brand grounded in optimism, a view the institution wanted to convey in its publication. The redesign of City News focused not just on fonts and images, but on story length, since shorter articles provide opportunities for more stories (any of which could be the best story in the view of any given reader) and are quicker and easier to read. Designers also established a color code consistent with City of Hope’s style guide, with different colors signifying specific service lines, such as breast cancer and colon cancer. As for fonts (the importance of which we by no means intended to diminish), designers replaced long-used fonts for both text and headlines with fresh fonts that well serve the goal of establishing City News as a contemporary publication that would look perfectly at home among high-end consumer publications on a street-side newsstand. The use of highlight colors in headlines to draw attention to key words is inspired. The dominance of people-focused photography that moves beyond tired old grip-and-grin gives this clinical publication a human dimension, while illustrations are employed where they make the most sense to enhance the articles they accompany. A combination of charts, graphs, and infographics adds to the modern look and enhances an already easy-to-read magazine. 

We’re honored to give the win in the Best Publication Design category of Ragan’s 2014 Health Care PR and Marketing Awards to City of Hope, and we congratulate senior designer Kristen Santoni and creative services director Stacy Kimmel—it’s all the more impressive that the work on this stellar hospital magazine was performed in-house, without the aid of any outside graphic design shops.

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here: http://www.ragan.com/Awards/RaganAwardsPrograms.aspx.