Designer: Luu Mai
After working with the predictable,
somewhat formal and rigid style of the
Baptist Convention of Maryland and
Delaware’s newsletter, Baptist Life,
for several years, design editor Sean
Copley wanted to make it more cheerful, “a stepping
stone to a magazine format,” with a streamlined
workflow for production.
“We have a staff of two and a little over a week
each month to produce the newsletter,” Copley says.
“It needs to be easier to organize and edit, and it has
to stay within 12 pages with our small budget.” A
promising note is that the piece and budget allow for
color on both the front and back pages.
With color an option, DG designer Luu Mai
chose to focus his redesign on strengthening Baptist
Life’s nameplate. He found an elegant but inexpensive
illustration of a cross with lilies representative of
the church and its mission. Mai paired the flowing
Palace Script MT with Gill Sans for a balanced title.
He pulled colors from the cross illustration and carried
them into the title—a warm brown for Life, and
the cool green of the lilies’ stems for the subtitle. The
result is a definitive, cohesive nameplate.
To maintain continuity throughout the piece,
Mai added a gradient photo along the bottom of
the pages and kept the cross and Baptist Life logo on
each page. The gradient photo can be changed seasonally
or to represent important events taking place.
Additionally, colored sidebars and pull quotes can be
incorporated to highlight information.
Mai makes productive use of church photos
and a two-column format that will make it an easier
read. And as Baptist Life’s mission statement shows,
the focus is all on the members—“It’s your life … we
just tell it!”
