Each month, companies in and around Wiesbaden receive the “Hessische Wirtschaft”, official bulletin of the Wiesbaden Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK). The communications department of the IHK asked Q to conduct a conceptional and visual relaunch.

In close consultation with our contacts at the IHK, the order of themes within the publication was changed. Most popular categories such as company news, formerly hidden in the back pages, were moved to the front. In addition, a new rubric, “Insight” presents regional movers and shakers with their (unknown) projects, business ideas, or locations. Our design task was to enhance the magazine look, bringing information and emotion in balance.

In the interior, big images continue the magazine style. Instead of using very different photos of people to introduce the article’s authors, we converted the portraits into creative illustrations. A flexible grid system (integrating the ad sizes), new fonts, quotes, and a vertical line above the page number breathe new typographic life into the publication. Our new layout dissolves the previous visual rigidity, with its justified typesetting and lack of white space.

             

From the very beginning, our mandate was unfortunately limited to one issue only. From the second issue, the printing house will take over again, because there are no funds available for further art direction. At least we were able to award the tender for the upcoming five cover visuals. We hope that our ideas will become further developed, and that the people producing the magazine will be inspired by the new design approach. Every time we find the “Hessische Wirtschaft” in our letterbox in the upcoming months and years, we hope to browse through the magazine with joy and surprise. Our new concept created unlimited options for presenting news about our local business community.