Freelance: Magazine

Hood Magazine

Year

2019

CLIENT

Hood magazine

SCOPE OF WORK

Hood is Scotland's only free, national glossy magazine for women. It is typically gone from supermarkets the first week it hits the stands. I was brought in during a transitional phase when they were working with another designer to rebrand. I needed to pick up the slack of all their other work while the other designer was working on the identity of the new magazine. I worked in October and November on exporting the anniversary issue and working with the printer on any issues; changing their Squarespace website to be more blog/content ready; designing graphics, magazine layout, as well as marketing for their anniversary party; and redesigning their media kit. Any other tasks that needed to be filled I stepped in for.

Layout

Website Redesign

I proposed a new Squarespace template that would highlight their many categories maintaining a sense of hierarchy. My 4 years at a lifestyle magazine in the States has taught me how readers want to access their desired category on the homepage without having to dig through complicated menus. Also, a fresh homepage each week is extremely important to readers. I emphasised the importance of the new cover online before it drops in stores.

ANALYSIS

The older website design and template did not feel like a magazine publishing lots of fresh content. There wasn’t a hierarchy of content, or any real call to actions, so it felt like the user may not know where to casually browse. The featured blogs first seemed like just typical posts until you scroll and see smaller blog posts. I also incorporated more CTA’s right on the homepage instead of buried in the footer.