NAVTA is a diverse community of Credentialed Veterinary Technicians, students, and Veterinary Assistants, united in advancing the profession of veterinary nursing through strategic advocacy, awareness, and professional development. This professional organization provides a variety of benefits to members; one of these benefits is a bimonthly magazine, The NAVTA Journal. I have been the primary designer of this publication since 2018; this includes the base design of the magazine, as well as all internal article layouts for each issue. I also fulfill a managing editor role in that I take care of editorial decisions such as article order, cover image, and all internal imagery.
It Started With a Redesign
In 2018, NAVTA came to me with a request: they felt their flagship publication, The NAVTA Journal, had become stale and lacked visual interest. I was happy to jump in and after doing research on competitor magazines as well as overall design trends in the magazine space, I created a design that is light and friendly; while the information featured within is clinical, the design keeps things fresh and inviting to keep readers engaged.
Issue Samples
I have an unusual amount of control over the design process for The NAVTA Journal. In the past, when I do magazine layouts, I suggest stock art, fonts, and creative layouts, but ultimately, a creative director or editor-in-chief will step in and dictate thing such as available page count, order of articles, placement of ads, etc. In this case, because NAVTA is a relatively small organization, I receive the articles and any relevant images, and then I choose all imagery, length of articles, placement of ads, and the feature image for the cover. Because I have been lucky enough to be the sole designer for this publication for the last 7 years (as well as the primary designer for all NAVTA projects), I have a unique and comprehensive experience that allows my design aesthetic to remain consistent across issues of the magazine as well as white papers, ads, digital graphics, and any other project that NAVTA may need.
Here are some samples of the Journal. Click on any of the images to be taken to the full issue.
Takeaways
Publication design requires a strong understanding of the readership and content. When working on this project, I had to balance the sometimes dry content with the need to keep layouts visually interesting. I love working on this project because not only does it present endless and interesting design challenges, but I always learn something new!