STAN Magazine is the magazine for alumni and friends of CSU Stanislaus. When I first arrived at the office of communications the university magazine didn’t actually have a name, it was just called CSU Stanislaus and had the university’s logo in the nameplate. The major design flaw of the layout at the time was that it was too generic, it didn’t have any unique personality that characterized the magazine clearly enough. I wanted to offer a redesign that was in sync with the University’s branding efforts as well as with the readers sensibilities—professional sheets, compartmentalized information, somewhat modern, smart but without being pretentious or artificial.

After sprucing up some tired pages, making a few adjustments to the publication’s approach, assigning a meaningful and own-able name, and making a splash with readers, the new format would then have to accommodate all of the clamoring voices of the institution and the people who work there. What made the design really come together was it’s ability to do just that. The design is built to adapt, it’s interesting enough to accommodate the adjustments, experiments, and unforeseen variations that have come at it from the world that is university publications.

Have a look at the last two issues: