Silverstone Design Solutions was asked earlier this year to quote for designing and printing a parish magazine in full colour. The current publication was put together by a group of volunteers and printed in black and white. It had been delivered in the parish for coming up to 40 years but they were looking for a change. We were able to professionally design and print the magazine in full colour without increasing their costs.

Before October 2017

  • Issues were printed in black and white so there were rarely any images included with the articles because, being in black and white, they couldn’t convey what the event was actually like,
  • All adverts were in black and white so there were never a huge number of businesses wanting to advertise,
  • Issues were generally 16 A5 pages and sometimes as low as 8 because they struggled to get content,
  • The magazine was not really designed, it just had all the content in one main column,
  • Printed on standard thin printer paper,
  • People didn’t know what was inside as the cover was just another page for content,

Now you may be thinking, why does a parish booklet need to be anything more than this? Surely a cheap black and white booklet does the job and people only throw it out once they have read it!

before
after
Since October 2017

We have just completed the first issue. The team of volunteers sent across the content and we undertook the design, sent proofs for review and printed the magazine in full colour. It was ready for distribution 6 days later.

  • The cover is now much more interesting with a full page photo and tells residents what’s inside,
  • Colour is used for headings throughout to separate sections and make it easier to read,
  • Lots of pictures in colour alongside articles,
  • This issue was 24 pages so an increase in people wanting to put content in,
  • Adverts are in colour and there has been an increase in the number of advertisers who want to pay to put an advert in. Ultimately the advertisers are what pay for the print so the size of the magazine can increase if there are more advertisers,
  • Printed on 135gsm slightly glossy paper so it looks more professional and doesn’t look like it has just printed off a home printer,
  • The design is more interesting and has coloured sections that stand out such as for community events,
  • The magazine is now more likely to be kept for important information and key dates,

The feedback has been excellent with people saying they actually wanted to read it when it was delivered rather that leaving it for later. This is excellent as there is no point in producing a magazine that no one wants to read!

If you are an editor of a parish or church magazine, or you know of one that needs improving in design or print, please get in touch for a no obligation quote https://silverstonedesignsolutions.com/contact/ to see how we could help you improve yours with little or no increase in costs.