How do you take a college magazine from good to great? Ask the team at Swarthmore College. Working with Zehno, Swarthmore relaunched its print and responsive online magazines at the same time. The result: a stylish print edition perfectly matched to its erudite readership and a lively web version that’s a destination all its own.
Challenges
- Modernize the design to reflect Swarthmore’s premier status.
- Tackle the print and online redesigns at the same time.
- Appeal to younger alumni. Show the range of careers powered by the liberal arts.
- Align the magazine with the college’s culture and current goals.
- Present long-form features with graphic appeal.
Results
TIME ON PAGE
Average time spent on the magazine website is 128 seconds per page — about 10 times what TIME magazine gets.
Reader Raves
“Brilliantly redesigned. Wow! A-plus. I have lived in the art world most of my adult life, and this design is really contemporary and smart. Swarthmore has been a world-class school. Its charm has been timelessness rooted in tradition. The redesign brings us into a new era.”
AWARDS
The magazine captured top awards from CASE, Educational Advertising Awards and CUPRAP for website improvement, writing, design and photography.
What Zehno did
- Position paper: Audit and strategic recommendations.
- Prototyping: Print magazine redesign, content strategy with new sections and storytelling devices, responsive web magazine in Drupal.
- Template preparation: Layout of first issue.
- Support: Continued consulting and on-site staff training.
- And more.
PRINT AND DIGITAL MAGAZINE
MAGAZINE TEMPLATE SYSTEM
Our integrated redesign hit a home run, as we have succeeded in greatly improving the overall magazine quality — keeping the best of what we were doing, adding exciting new features and taking everything up a considerable notch. Zehno was the perfect partner for this voyage.
Tips for your team
- Training staff members and consulting on early issues keeps the redesigned magazine focused on its strategic goals.
- Web magazines demand heavy promotion. It’s shocking how many alumni don’t realize your web magazine exists!
DOES YOUR MAGAZINE MATTER?
Next time budget slashers descend on your office, be prepared to answer what it actually accomplishes.