The left-side logo placement was less of a concern for FP than it might have been for others, editor Brian Banks says, because the magazine doesn't have a much of a newsstand presence.

Financial Post Magazine, formerly Financial Post Business, unveiled its first redesign in three years yesterday. Two key working principles drove the changes to fonts, templates, architecture, cover logo, areas of coverage and magazine name, according to editor Brian Banks.

1) An effort to “beef up” the most widely read sections of the book, namely the "Family Finance" column, which has now been expanded into a six-page section, and the "Small Business" section, which now fills the back of book, replacing the more lifestyle-oriented Outbound section. The front of book has also been repackaged and is now called "First Business." 2) A desire to more closely align the magazine with the recently redesigned National Post newspaper and website (the magazine is distributed for free to the Post’s 200,000-plus subscribers).

“We wanted it to be: If you put the paper down on the table with the magazine and our competing magazines, it’d be very clear which magazine belongs to the paper. Not just by the words, but by the look,” Banks says.

The most dramatic visual change is the cover, where the masthead/logo now runs vertically down the left side of the page, rather than horizontally at the top.

Other design changes, reported by art director Lina McPhee, include:

• A change in fonts for the display copy in the front and back sections to Poytner Agate and Post Sans, which are the paper fonts;
• Using Poytner Agate for headlines and decks in the feature section;
• Aligning slugs, bylines and rules with style of paper.

Along with the changes to the print product, the magazine’s website has also been updated and now includes a multi-contributor blog, FP Magazine Daily.

Feedback from readers garnered from both formal and informal research guided the in-house conceptualizing and execution of the redesign, Banks says. “But for me, I go as much with my gut,” he adds.

Related links:

• Editor's note by Brian Banks [Financial Post Magazine]