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Do you want to showcase your business to a new audience, boost staff morale, or communicate with customers in a more inventive way?

If you’re not sure where to start, how about creating your own company magazine?

If this scares you, as you haven’t got the necessary skills, time and resources in-house, then don’t worry… help and support is at hand.

Creative excellence from idea to publication

At Pixooma, we can manage the process from start to finish. After discussing your initial ideas, or perhaps adding a few of our own, we’ll guide you through the process. Including everything from planning, creative design and responsive project management to high-quality production - whether that’s print or digital.

And thanks to our trusted partnerships with copywriters, editors, photographers and printers, who can help you with the words and images, we can plan an eye-catching front cover and enticing layout for you.

The resulting magazine is guaranteed to accurately represent your brand, promote your products and services, build credibility and trust and engage your members, staff, customers, prospective customers, or suppliers.

For complete peace of mind, don’t forget we offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee.

We'll happily create a bespoke magazine proposal to precisely meet your needs, simply fill out our questionnaire and we’ll be back in touch shortly.

Secrets to a great magazine

You need to include the following vital elements for maximum impact:

A memorable title

Powerful headlines and subheadings

An engaging voice

Professional styling

Easy to read fonts

Interesting features

Relevant themes

Impactful images

Insightful stories

Persuasive adverts

CASE STUDY: The Business Bulletin

Design for 'Strategy and personal development' issue
Magazine article design for 'Sales and marketing' issue
Magazine design for 'Operations and resources' issue
Magazine cover design for 'Finance' issue

In October 2020, Paul Green wanted to create a new online magazine for business owners that provided genuinely useful expert guidance on a range of topics. The magazine would be produced every four weeks and shared digitally on social media, email and Issuu.

Paul needed the magazine to be expertly designed with the right balance between articles and advertising, as well as having a high-quality layout and style. Having used Pixooma for design projects in the past, Mark was his obvious choice to produce the Business Bulletin.

At the start of the process, Pixooma created an agreed template structure, which suited the publication. This has been used successfully in every subsequent edition, saving valuable time and money, whilst at the same time giving readers familiarity when it comes to locating their favourite features.

However, it has been Pixooma’s flexible and responsive approach which has made the most difference. This has meant contributor’s content is dealt with efficiently and within agreed deadlines, whilst amendments and any last-minute changes have been actioned promptly. All in all, this has allowed the magazine to be produced and distributed in a timely manner to an appreciative and ever-growing audience.

See the latest edition of Business Bulletin.

Just think how a magazine like this could help boost your business! Simply fill out our questionnaire and we'll provide you with a bespoke proposal to consider.

This project would not have been possible without the support of Pixooma and them ‘buying into’ the concept of the project. They are definitely more like a partner, than just a supplier

Paul Green

Video testimonial from Paul Green

What's involved in producing a magazine?

It's not just the design of the magazine we can help you with – our project management experience means we can guide you through every stage and ensure your publication is kept on schedule – which means we'll remind you when your key deadlines are due as well.

This is one our key Pixooma Principles and it's what makes us different.

Getting to know you

Although we'll often have a quick chat with you to discuss your project, we find that our magazine questionnaire is the best way to gather the key information and understand your challenges.

Once we have that information we can create a bespoke design proposal for you…

A proposal to suit you

We'll deliver your proposal to you in the way that you prefer: whether it's a full PDF proposal with every detail covered, a simple email outlining the key points or something in between.

And because we provide fixed prices for every project there'll be no nasty surprises at the billing stage, guaranteed

Once you've approved our proposal we're ready to get started…

 

Let's get started!

We'll create a bespoke design concept featuring a few key pages, and work with you to refine it until you're completely happy. We'll then expand on these concept pages to create the first full proof of the magazine for you to review.

If we're using any of our trusted partners we'll introduce them to you at an appropriate point in the project, but we'll still be your single point of contact. So any concerns, challenges, and queries can be directed to us and we'll deal with them efficiently - that's our promise and our guarantee

Then it's time proof and approve…

Proofing and approval

Although we run a thorough set of 'Preflight checks' prior to completing a project, the onus is on you as the client to ensure it's all correct.

We encourage you to check every proof carefully, and get a number of other 'eyes' on it to minimise anything slipping through. You may find these proofing tips useful, especially if it's something you haven't done before.

Then we can move onto delivery…

Delivery

For an online (e-magazine) we'll provide you a final PDF file when you've approved everything so you can upload it to your website or e-pub platform. And we'll add it to your client portal*.

If we are using one of our trusted print partners we'll liaise with them and provide them with the files they need. They'll then deliver your finished magazines to you directly. The final 'Press' PDF will also be added to your client portal*.

Then it's on to the next edition!

*Every Pixooma client is provided with a secure 'Client Portal' where you can find lots of useful content and links including all completed project files and your invoices.

Other magazines we've designed

Design for an Austrian Travel magazine
Magazine design for a series of travel blogs around Italy and France
A planetary science magazine design for The Europlanet Society

Frequently asked questions

We'll guide you as much as you need from the initial conversation through to the finished magazine. And we'll agree in advance what you need to provide, and when.

If you have some great photography you can use, or are happy to search stock libraries for each issue then great, but if not we can take this off your hands. Similarly you can provide the text, or we can introduce you to one of our trusted copywriters.

And it isn't just the content we can help you with. As one of our key principles is "Managing you and your project", we'll help you with scheduling and managing each edition, and we'll even prompt you about your own agreed 'milestones' to ensure the project stays on track. We're as invested in the success of your magazine as you are as Paul Green's testimonial above demonstrates.

One of the most common questions we get asked is "How long will it take you to design it?".

It'll vary with each project, but a good rule of thumb is to allow two weeks for us to create the initial concept and key pages (see the 'What's involved…' above). After that, allow two or three days for each new proof following amendments from you.

Actually though, what most people don't realise is that the biggest influence on the time taken to complete ANY project is you, the client. Clients tend to under-estimate how long they will need to check each proof and provide feedback, and their day-to-day work gets in the way and causes delays.

Therefore we generally do not give exact timescales because it's mostly out of our hands. However, if you had a specific deadline that MUST be met then we would agree milestones that you'd need to meet in order for it to be possible, and we'd agree our own to match.

Given the number of variables involved there is no one-size-fits-all answer:

  1. How many pages is it?
  2. How many editions per year is it?
  3. Are you supplying the imagery?
  4. Are we sourcing stock imagery for you? Or using one of our trusted photographers?
  5. Are you supplying the text? Or using one of our trusted copywriters?
  6. Are you using your own printer, or are we handling this for you
  7. Etc…

These are all questions that need to be answered before we can give you a bespoke proposal with a fixed price.

However, it's sensible to assume that the monthly cost could be more like your monthly spend on groceries or your mortgage, rather than your monthly spend on toiletries.

We'd be happy to provide you with a bespoke proposal – simply fill out our magazine questionnaire

Our comprehensive process (see 'What's involved…' above) ensures that it's very unlikely that the concept we present is completely off-target.

However, even if it is, this isn't a problem. We simply use your feedback and our many years of experience to create a brand new concept that's much closer to your needs, and a better starting point for the project.

And don't worry, if we do need to start again, there is NO additional cost to you. The fees agreed at the start still apply, so you don't need to worry about escalating costs or nasty surprises in the final invoice. It's all part of our 100% Satisfaction Guarantee.

No. We provide a fixed-price proposal that includes ALL amends. That means we don't charge for 'additional rounds'.

The only exceptions are if the brief has changed since the project has started, or if you ask us to make major changes to parts of the project that were already approved. In these unlikely events we'd always tell you in advance the extent of the additional costs - so you'll never get a surprise at billing stage.

We find our clients are as keen as we are to complete the project so we've never had to charge extra.

For magazines that have at least four issues per year, we'll agree an ongoing monthly fee to be collected by Direct Debit.

For magazines that occur less frequently, our standard process is:

  1. 50% Deposit – before any work starts
  2. 40% Interim – usually a key milestone such as delivery of first visuals or after an agreed time has elapsed
  3. 10% Completion – Only when the project has been completed to your satisfaction do we issue the final invoice

If we're printing your magazine for you using one of our trusted print partners, then we'll provide the files direct to them. A copy of the final "Press PDF' will also be added to your client portal*.

If you're using your own printer or this is for online use only, we'll provide you with a PDF file suitable for the purpose (and add it to your client portal*)

*Every Pixooma client is provided with a secure 'Client Portal' where you can find lots of useful content and links including all completed project files and your invoices.

No. And here's why…

  1. We're creative consultants and we operate collaboratively with you to fully understand your needs and provide bespoke solutions. If you don't like our designs then we'll go back and create new ones and work with you until you are completely happy. Pitching for work reduces the design process to a 'Beauty Parade' with a simple 'like/dislike' for every idea presented from each party. 
  2. We still have to take a lot of time and effort to create the design concepts and there is a possibility of losing all the time invested into it. And without the insights that a consultative approach brings (see point 1) this is much more difficult. Ultimately the odds of 'winning' naturally reduce with every new agency that's asked to pitch. Thereby increasing the chances that our investment in time and money will be lost.
  3. The concept of pitching for work seems to be something that almost exclusively happens within the creative industries and it's a real problem, as it seriously devalues the work of a designer and agency. You wouldn't ask your car mechanic, your financial advisor, or anyone else to produce work entirely for free and in competition with several others. 

Most importantly of all - YOU lose out with this approach. On the face of it, it seems like a good deal – you get multiple ideas to review (and for free) and then can work with the agency that produces the design you like the most. BUT, what if you don't like any of them? What if, with more information and insight one of the other agencies would have come up with a much better idea that you'd LOVE rather than picking the best of 'what's there'?

Styles come and go. Good design is a language, not a style

Massimo Vignelli, Italian designer

Call us on 01536 217007 or email us today for a no-obligation chat about your magazine project, or simply fill out our questionnaire and we’ll be back in touch shortly.

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