By KarI Y. Snyder, MFA
Coco Eco magazine is an international, online, multi-platform eco-chic lifestyle brand celebrating sustainable fashion, beauty, celebrity and culture. Smart. Sexy. Sustainable. When I came on-board, the magazine was suffering from zero branding guidelines; a flawed production flow with authors sending in random word-count articles and incorrect photo formats; a lack of any layout template compounded by multiple designers with each laying in separate sections of the magazine and each doing their own take on the look and feel; and a website that did not have a pay gate nor any interaction with readership.
- Creative Director (all graphics and promotional work)
- Business Development
- Digital Media Production
- 12 International writers
- 4 Editorial team
- 3 years
- Basecamp
- Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator)
- HTML, CSS, and Javascript
- MS Office
The first objective was in reformatting the magazine layout from a hodge-podge range of design styles and directions into a harmonious and sophisticated look with a central font family; a per-issue, single color theme; and a range of master compositional page templates.
The former Contents section was squeezed into a single page with hard-to-read page numbers and offered little in the way of up-selling various articles.
The redesigned Contents section was increased to a two-page spread with clear section title treatments, larger page numbers and a range of images to entice viewers.
The former Beauty Products section was disjointed and cluttered.
The redesigned Beauty Products section is clean and visually impacts.
I wireframed and redesigned a new web site that included digital magazine subscription service, social media linking, a blog with article comments, Google Ad integration, Amazon affiliate integration, and online ads so that in-magazine advertisers could also book online placement. The redesign caused a revenue growth rate of 1,400%.
To better facilitate production flow within a disbursed, global team of 33 - 60 content creators and writers, I had everyone centralized through Basecamp, an online production management tool. I created a detailed Production Guide that covered everything from how to name files, how to FTP images; an article word count and photo requirement list, and check lists for content submissions and deadlines. The enhanced flow of communication lowered the publication error rate from over 80% to less than 2% in under five issues.
“Whilst working with Coco Eco Magazine, Karen has exhibited exemplary organization skills managing both operations and staff. She is respected as a team leader who multi-tasks efficiently and calmly under intense deadline, whilst always maintaining a level head. Karen is a natural communicator, and a team player that will go above and beyond in her contribution to a flawless execution.”
