Publications –
Pelco by Schneider Electric
My direct contributions to this magazine were many. I was art director and provided editorial design direction. I led the 6 person Design Team and was overall project manager that included print production. I also coordinated photoshoots and was responsible for cover development. This magazine had a circulation of 50,000 was produced quarterly. It was the flagship content piece for the company.
PROBLEM
For about 4 years, I was Art Director and led the design team to produce this private company’s magazine (76 pages) that had the highest-level of production value. The Pelco, Inc. company magazine was the flagship customer-retention literature. The CEO had hands-on input and who considered it essential to have at his customer meetings. This content also received the highest level of review and had to meet precise production timelines to coincide with events at every quarter. It was high-stress and high-reward at a time where this private company grew from $350M to $700M.
PROCESS
Entire production schedule is outlined. It’s reverse-scheduled from delivery date.
I led the Editorial Board Meeting.
Determine article list & cover feature.
Coordinate article pagination and assigned editorial design articles to the Design Team.
Receive final completed articles from the Editorial Team.
Design phases begins.
Design changes & Art Director review.
Internal QA begins.
Final review of articles by Product Management, International, HR review of articles.
Send final proof to my Manger for CEO approval.
Print production & coordination begins.
Led repurposing of print version to the digital using page-turn software.
Magazines delivered.
DELIVERY
I worked with Mail Services to coordinate domestic, global and event distribution. Coordinated with the Web Team for the digital version on the website.
OUTCOME
This content was the CEO’s means to share the Customer Service and Customer Experience culture of the company which was how the company grew so fast. The CEO also used it as a way to build the brand too. Because of this, there was a high-level of scrutiny for every issue which is sometimes difficult during production but balances out after each issue is printed.
RESPONSE
This magazine was widely read and quite anticipated because it had content directed both to people who work with the company and those who at the company. This generally created very favorable responses to each issue. Actually, several issues made it to high-level review… some celebrities and some in politics. Of course, there was always a “post-mortem” after each issue so we could learn from any problems that arose during production.
BARRIERS
Maintain creative & design standards is sometimes difficult because you always want fresh ideas. I took extra steps to have design meetings that focused on trends and gave creative ideas.
Timing was always difficult because this was a very busy corporate Design Studio so planning production in advance was very important.
Because this magazine was a large annual expense, I was also asked to reduce costs. A major achievement of mine was reducing costs and saving $100k annually while maintaining quality and print timing.