Drum Business is a trade publication by Modern Drummer Publications exclusively for drum retailers. To effectively live up to its billing, “a new design should be more dynamic, lively, and engaging,” says Modern Drummer Publications’ senior art director Scott Bienstock. “It should have a cleaner design that draws more readers.”

The newsletter needs to remedy a number of issues first, notes designer Mandy Barrett. “There are too many stories on the cover,” she says. You don’t need to start all your articles on the publication’s cover—with effective titles, the table of contents will draw your readers inside. For her redesigned cover, Barrett used one of the newsletter’s existing photos. “I enlarged the photo and did a color manipulation to tie it into the story,” says the designer. With zero budget for original photography, Bienstock says photography is supplied by drummers and the industry. But Barrett doesn’t think this should deter the group. She suggests making the best photos as large as possible with captions over them, instead of next to them. “Use the fonts and headlines to make up for any articles that don’t have a great image,” she advises.

Barrett selected Trebuchet Regular for titles, Copperplate Light for subtitles, and Univers Light for body copy. “You can have larger, more exciting titles, have a pull-out intro, and use different fonts as subtitles,” she says. “I wanted something modern for the main title font to give the newletter a current, fresh look.” She also selected an earthy palette of red, green, brown, and black that works with the modern fonts and gives the newsletter cohesiveness.

To work around large, off-sized ads required in the newsletter, Barrett suggests pulling out an intro paragraph as a call-out to work with the space. “You can remedy the top space of the page with strong titles,” says Barrett. “Additionally, each of those sections now has a header that lets you know where you are in the newsletter.”

1. Original newsletter Modern Drummer Publications’ senior art director Scott Bienstock says this mostly copy-driven trade publication, Drum Business, needs a fresher look.
2. Fonts Designer Mandy Barrett selected Trebuchet Regular for titles, the serif cap font Copperplate Light for subtitles, and a smaller-size, yet still legible, Univers Light for the text.	3. Colors The original design lacked a cohesive palette. Barrett applied modern, earthy tones, including brown, red, green, and black.
4. Blow ’em up! Barrett says Drum Business’ minimal photography budget is no problem: “The photos they have are pretty great. They’re just not getting the most from them.” Her tips: Use the good ones as big as possible. Make better use of space by running captions over the pictures instead of next to them. 5. Intro paragraphs Pulling out an intro paragraph as a bold call-out helps designers work around necessary odd-sized ads and draws readers into each article. 6. Bigger headlines/ smaller text For heavy copy, Barrett suggests using larger point sizes on headlines to gain attention, and smaller sizes in text. She employed two fresh fonts to differentiate story titles from column names.
7. Story focus In the initial design, five articles began on the front page. “Way too many stories,” says Barrett. “Nothing holds it together.” She recommends choosing one story that stands out and make it the main attraction to pull readers in. The table of contents will let them know about other stories of interest.