Change—it can be the hardest, most frightening thing in the world. But at Utah Business, some change has been long overdue. We hadn’t seriously updated the look of the magazine for about a decade, so, prodded by a 30-year anniversary, we have seized the opportunity to freshen the design.
The redesign is more of a facelift for Utah Business, rather than a bone-cracking reconstruction. What we hoped to achieve is a fresh, current look that is airier and more readable. The biggest change is in our ever-popular Around Utah department, which is jam-packed with news tidbits from across the state. We’ve injected more white space and clean organization into the department to make those tidbits more digestible.
The recognizable Utah Business masthead was introduced a decade ago. While mastheads and logos can seem set in stone, they are in fact changeable. We toyed with the idea of entirely revamping the masthead, but instead chose to hang onto our iconic masthead, with some simplifications.
It’s amazing for me to flip back through the magazine’s archives and see the changes it has undergone over the years. Utah Business was launched in 1986, but, sadly, we have no archives earlier than 1994. The issues from the 1990s are beautiful, with incredible illustrative covers. They feature a very simple masthead and a minimalist design. In the early 2000s, the masthead was enlarged and the covers were more likely to feature influential people.
I’m very interested to know what you think of our new look. Is it more readable? Is it attractive and organized? What do you most want to see on our covers? In addition, we launched a new website last month, and I’m curious about your experience with the new site. Is it easy to navigate? Are the articles easier to read? Do you hate it?
I’d love to hear any feedback you have. You can email me at heather@www.utahbusiness.com.
Sincerely,
Heather Dawn Stewart