myVA Quarterly
The Challenge
The Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center had long distributed a quarterly magazine to stakeholders under the masthead, Focus VA (). This publication was written by Charleston Public Affairs Staff but the design was contracted through the publisher. This made the development of each issue of the magazine slow and inefficient. It also meant that last-minute changes such as scheduling changes for events were either costly or impossible. The design was stale and not conformant with the brand identity guidelines required by VA. It also no longer fit with the facility’s new “myVA” campaign.
The Solution
Starting with the Fall 2014 issue of the magazine, I took over the development of the magazine for layout design and Section 508 compliance. The Fall 2014 issue also introduced the rebrand to myVA and began to serve as a companion piece to other marketing efforts by including a feature in each issue that told the story of the Veteran and the provider currently featured on the billboards in the area. By providing the design in-house the lede times necessary for development of each issue was significantly reduced from a number of weeks to just a few days. I was also able update the publication to match current trends in design and bring the publication into compliance with VA brand identity standards.
Sample Issues
| myVA Quarterly, Winter 2016
A special issue commemerating the namesake of the medical center.
Photography: James Arrowood & David Jones
Editor: Meredith Hagen
Contributors: Erin Curran & Lanelle Strawder
Magazine layout was one of my favorite design tasks each quarter at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center. I enjoyed being able to experiment with new spread ideas and content-fitting challenges with each issue. Each quarter also provided the opportunity to further refine my typography skills and grid work.
In response to the positive reception of myVA Quarterly, I provided training and design review to the Army Corps of Engineers for their quarterly publication. I am also extremely proud that my work on the magazine for Charleston led to me providing the layout for an issue of VAnguard for VA Central Office.