We created a stunning and effective employee magazine design that was the perfect way to keep everyone informed and engaged.

Challenge

“We don’t want a traditional newsletter, we want an employee magazine” – that was the brief AstraZeneca gave us following a review of their internal communications channels. Recognising the importance of internal communications and with thousands of employees in multiple sites across the UK, a stunning and effective employee magazine design was the perfect way to keep everyone informed.

Solution

To help achieve the most effective look and feel, we broke away from traditional A sizes and designed the magazine to a tabloid format, more evocative of a quality publication. This same feel was enhanced by choosing to print onto an uncoated matt cartridge style paper.

Inspired by the name ‘Spectrum’, we helped the employee magazine develop an identity of its own. We took the idea of a barcode and infused it with the spectrum of colours from AstraZeneca’s brand colour palette. We integrated the barcode graphic throughout various page layouts within the magazine, subtly featuring on each article, adding visual continuity.

Working closely with our client’s internal editing team, who provided the articles, we rewrote all the content headlines, designed and artworked the page layouts, and were also responsible for developing creative front cover concepts for each issue.

We also project managed the printing and fulfilment to ensure thousands of copies of each issue went out on time every month, direct to the homes of AstraZeneca employees.

“Working with the Parker team is a real pleasure. For them ‘going the extra mile’ is part of the service.

Everyone is pro-active, provides creative solutions, and does whatever’s needed to meet tight deadlines

and work within the agreed budget, to produce a quality product.

I’d recommend them to anyone.”