Elevating Iconic New Zealand Lifestyle Magazines: Editorial Redesigns for Stuff Media
During a four year tenure within the Life and Style team at Fairfax Media (now Stuff), I operated as a dedicated editorial and magazine designer. My role focused on shaping the visual identity of prominent New Zealand lifestyle publications, specifically Avenues (Christchurch) and Admire (Nelson), alongside Your Weekend, a high-profile insert distributed weekly within nationwide newspapers.
The Challenge: As readership habits evolved, these well loved publications needed to modernise their aesthetic direction to stay fresh, engaging, and competitive. The challenge was to execute full scale publication redesigns that elevated the storytelling and visual appeal, while building highly structured, robust design systems. These systems had to be flexible enough for editorial teams to adapt to diverse content every week or month, without losing layout consistency or readability.
The Solution I led the visual revamp and ongoing production of these publications from initial concept through to print-ready files:
- Masthead and Identity Development: Designing new mastheads and visual identities for Avenues and Your Weekend to establish a contemporary look on the newsstands.
- Design Systems and Master Templates: Creating flexible, cohesive master templates for interior pages and feature layouts, ensuring practical consistency for high volume print production.
- Cover Design: Crafting modern, eye catching front covers tailored to reflect the unique tone and focus of each specific issue.
- Cross Functional Collaboration: Working closely alongside editors, journalists, photographers, and senior managers to align the graphic direction with the core editorial vision.
The Results: The strategic redesigns successfully elevated the storytelling and visual hierarchy of all three publications. The refreshed formats received excellent feedback from internal stakeholders and the wider public alike, establishing a deep, practical expertise in managing the entire magazine production process from early planning to final print delivery.
