The Communications Network, a leading global network of nonprofit communications professionals, has been a long-time partner and friend of Constructive. Every two years, the Network releases a journal called Change Agent that features articles, ideas, and reflections from some of the most influential voices in the social change sector. While we designed the first transmedia issue of Change Agent a year earlier, for Change Agent: The Racism Issue, we pushed the idea even further. Together with ComNet and Change Agent’s authors, we developed a landmark publication featuring leading voices such as Trabian Shorters, Michele Norris, and Darren Walker, which pays tribute to their important ideas and calls to action.
For years, the design strategy for Change Agent was to have different designs for every issue. For The Racism Issue, we collaboratively set goals and developed an editorial design strategy to live up to the importance and seriousness of racial justice issues. After exploring ideas, we decided that, to honor and represent the diversity of ideas and experiences that Change Agent: The Racism Issue would elevate, each article would be designed with its own signature look. The key was to ensure that everything felt cohesive by creating a unifying brand identity for the publication.
Surveys and workshops are great ways to learn about a nonprofit’s history and brand—but for brands that provide vital services directly to people and communities you have to get closer.
Our first step in developing the visual brand for Change Agent was to audit previous editions and assess what was working and what wasn’t. After developing a few mood boards, we focused on a direction that everyone agreed honored the content. We then developed an editorial grid system for digital and print that would unite design and a flexible production process that allowed authors, designers, and developers to accelerate collaboration—a critical step to meeting a tight deadline.
Change Agent is a collaboration of diverse voices and design thinkers who come together to challenge the audience’s understanding and subconscious assumptions on race and racism.
The print version of Change Agent complements the digital edition, picking up on its design cues and emphasizing the classic publication editorial design techniques that make for immersive long-form reads. Of course, the one thing a print publication has that a digital one lacks is a cover. And to set the tone, we explored multiple options for a print cover design that makes a more focused, bold statement than digital can. Diversity is front and center—with a range of emotions and experiences on display that invite readers in to engage with Change Agent’s provocative ideas. The result is progressive and patriotic, challenging us to reflect on what it means to be a person of color in America.
Because the print version invited readers to go online for a more multimedia experience, and the digital one offered downloads of the printed version, we needed to create a cohesive transmedia brand experience. Our design system combines icons, fonts, and imagery that provide visual interest and support user experience goals across platforms, creating calls-to-action in print publications and encouraging online visits by promoting digital-only content.
