Art director Yolanta (pictured) explains how she approaches the design of each issue of NZ Life & Leisure and her thinking behind the recent redesign.
Why are the cover and masthead so important to a magazine?
This is the way we sell our magazine. Our cover is our only advertisement in the busy bookstands where it competes with thousands of other magazines, both national and international. I have to make it easy to find and instantly
recognizable. And that cover photograph needs to be really strong and reflect the personality of the magazine. NZ Life & Leisure always has people on the cover – the magazine is all about New Zealanders after all.
If this is so important, why change the masthead ?
To make it better and easier to see. The logo is now more of a device in a block of colour so it has more cut-through (impact) from a distance and will stand out on any cover image. We have kept the same font (type face)
and accentuated the word “Life”, reducing and putting the “&” on the same line as “Leisure” – again, for more impact from a distance. We have also added a new tagline: Inspiring New Zealanders. This reiterates NZ Life &
Leisure’s philosophy that it is all about people.
It took weeks of discussion over various layouts and with minor changes such as the thickness of the script. We called upon the expertise of our marketing manager, our strategist and our managing director. But, at the end of the process, it is always Kate’s call and with her it comes largely from instinct. She has strong feelings about what our readers will respond to.
