With newly-appointed editor Rob Broadfield, West Weekend Magazine was developed from scratch, with a team spanning the continent. Creating the entire look & feel (including content recommendations) was a huge task in itself, but perhaps an even bigger task was creating an in-house environment where it could thrive. This involved regularly working on-site with the newspaper creative staff (an amicable team of designers, photographers and illustrators with no magazine experience) and mentoring them in creating—and sustaining—a weekly magazine. From briefing and commissioning photography & illustration, to liaising with the print production staff, to organising IT permissions, the initial success of the magazine depended largely on continued engagement.
Eventually, West Weekend Magazine found its own place within the newspaper, and has undergone a few cosmetic and staff changes since its beginnings back in 2007. To date the magazine is widely considered the premium weekend liftout in the state, and with a readership of 421,000 and counting, it looks like it’s mission accomplished.
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| The cover template allowed a range of visual approaches from photography, illustration and typography, to information design and collage |
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| Regardless of the medium, the covers aimed to be distinctive within the context of the market, and within the newspaper itself week-to-week |
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| Much of the ongoing process included art directing numerous in-house photographers (all with different styles and levels of experience), and encouraging them to embrace a more ‘magaziney’ style of photography. Astrid Volzke never failed to disappoint. |
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| Right from the get-go we weren’t afraid to push the envelope—this spread is from the first edition, and features an (up until then) very rare example of writing and design working directly together to create a striking visual. |
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| Both the content and visual treatment of stories was many and varied, but all underpinned by a flexible and robust typographic structure. |
