The Oregon Zoo was searching for an updated look to its quarterly newsletter magazine. The redesign needed to appeal to the zoo’s predominantly young, contemporary visitors and members, and support the zoo’s programming and fundraising goals.

The previous format suffered from information overload. To address the needs of different age groups, our goal was to give readers an understandable and entertaining way to navigate the newsletter. For example, the youngest reader may simply look at the pictures; an older child may read headlines and some text; an adult will choose to read complete articles that grab his or her attention.

Our design approach:

• Lively graphics and bold headlines invite readers to focus, then choose how deep they will go into stories
• Clear organization avoids the pitfalls of information overload
• Pull quotes and shorter paragraphs make articles more easily scanned
• A clearly articulated cover story helps set the scene for each issue
• A table of contents or cover story information on the opening spread helps readers locate content