Designing a popular science publication

Creating proximity, highlighting services, and convincing the public with them. These are the aims of the biannual Radius magazine. Our job was to do the redesign.

How can a cantonal hospital create proximity to the public and convince them of its services? The solution offered by Spitäler Schaffhausen is a biannual customer magazine. This is included as an insert in the Wednesday edition of the well-established regional newspaper, which is distributed free of charge to all households on that day. The content highlights the services and courses offered by the hospitals, focuses on the employees, makes the management approachable, and also shows what goes on in the background, at the organizational level of a hospital.

The publication is called Radius Magazine, and a new look is needed in 2023; a job for us that includes the redesign, layout of the first issue, production, and project management. The brief states that the magazine should be medically credible, but not scientifically elitist. It should be generally understandable and at a popular scientific level.

The publication's name Radius inspires us for different looks during our design phase. Radius means ray. Or half the diameter of a circle. In addition, our forearm bone is also called radius. In our favorite design, we show it in an X-ray-like manner on a blue background on the cover. A free-standing photo of the cover story is added. Now our design fits popular science.

We use modern typography and blue boxes, and we create sections for the layout design - so that the magazine looks well organized. For the layout of the first issue, we opted for bold image details. We supported the hospital's communications department with suggestions for the titles and subtitles, teaser, table of contents, and section titles. As a sparring partner, we also proofread the texts and suggested phrasings for phrasings that were not particularly successful.

And of course, we are delighted when the first Radius is available in its new look. We are already waiting for the next task. We enjoy working with our sample template, which allows bold layouts.