Thursday, March 21, 2013
Homes and Cottages gets New Look
First published in 1989, Homes and Cottages has had several different name and design tweeks over the years, but until now has never undergone a complete re-design.

Refreshing the brand in this case yielded a very nice result.

According to publisher Steven Griffin, the re-design had several goals:

  • Produce a higher-end, more sophisticated-looking product for the consumer marketplace
  • Attract more readers
  • Attract more advertisers

However, the publication was clear that it did not want to be confused with a decorating magazine. Rather, the goal was to still to focus on ”the nuts and bolts functional approach of the editorial content,” endeavouring to make it the best Canadian renovation and building magazine in the marketplace.

The re-design process started with a focus group. “The most challenging part of the re-design was that as a split-run magazine with both a trade and consumer version, there are many audiences. Every feature article appears in both versions, but the content had to be presented to each group in different yet relevant ways,” said Griffin. “By containing the image area on the cover to a square, we are now less dependent on finding a vertical shot.”

“Overall we set out to make the book more consumer friendly without alienating the trade group, builders, architects, designers, etc. The resulting update looks elegant without being stuffy or trendy. The increased trim size (changed to a wider format) provides a unique size and lends itself to greater image selection.”

The re-design was handled by K9 Design Co.

New Look. 

Old Look:

- Scott Bullock
About Me
Scott Bullock

 
Scott Bullock is the the creator of Coverssell.com. Bullock has worked as circulation director for both consumer and B2B magazines including Toronto Life and FASHION. If you have a great cover to share, please send all submissions to 
scottbullock(at)rogers(dot)com

Note to readers: some of Bullock's posts may refer to his clients.
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