Nuestra Voz
Newspaper Redesign / Rebranding | Editorial Design
Nuestra Voz is the Spanish-language, Catholic newspaper serving Brooklyn and Queens. Officially born in 2011 (with previous attempts since the mid ’90s) as an initiative of the Diocese of Brooklyn to bring relevant news to the underserved Hispanic community.
Scope
Create a distinctive and unique brand that resonated with the Catholic Hispanic audience in Brooklyn and Queens. If the newspaper has to stand out and become The official Diocesan Newspaper, a complete redesign had to be made.
Problem
From a lack of identity through a series of renaming, logotype, and layout changes. It began as a copy of the diocesan newspaper in English, creating confusion among the audience, affecting efforts towards brand positioning in an environment heavily populated by other publications.
Phase 1
The Editor in Chief, the Junior Editor, and myself kicked off the project by doing market research, establishing objectives, and making several logo proposals. The challenge was to keep the look and feel of the previous logo, yet it had to be bolder and more modern without losing its essence, to reflect the newspaper’s change of editorial voice and the way it interacted with the readers.
The next step was to create a color system for each section, a better column grid, and different cover layouts, keeping two or three important stories and using big images, getting to a point where it was clearly its own brand, far from the English version.
After this new editorial and graphic redesign, the newspaper began to have more traction and recognition in the following years, publishing close to 36 issues, and finally positioning the brand among the audience. At the same time, the team went through internal growth, and changes in editors, writers, columns, and sections.
Phase 1 – Outcomes
Thanks to one-on-one interviews, surveys and feedback from the community we find out the paper still needed a significant lift-up. We discovered what truly moved our audience (35 to 65-year-old, Catholic, Hispanic immigrants, male and female), their challenges, and aspirations. We also found out that it was hard to read for older audiences, the saturated color system diminished the seriousness of the stories, and the logotype felt old still. Lastly, the paper went through a change of printer company, for this reason, the Editorial Board decided to have a second redesign.
Phase 2
The new identity was inspired by South American clothes, regional patterns, and colors, reflecting the richness and diversity of the Hispanic cultures. The initial sept was to redesign the logotype keeping a resemblance to the previous logo but transforming it into a modern, lighter, and cleaner version of it, choosing a font family that could offer high flexibility and legibility. A new design that resonated with the new editorial voice of the paper.
Once again we created a new grid, sections, columns, and various graphic styles. From the technical perspective, we began learning about the specifications, dimensions, and input from the printer company, creating a 12 column template and a baseline grid, setting the precedent for the layout. We partnered with the Sales Department, defining a system of modules and advertising dimensions that worked well with the flow of the stories and at the same time easy and quick to generate revenue.
After establishing a cleaner and organic flow of the layout of the entire newspaper we were able to direct the reader on a reading journey. Now was time to incorporate a design system library of all of the graphic elements used throughout the paper to guarantee design consistency, and lastly created a system of icons that helped to improve the cohesiveness between sections.
The final layout was implemented in October 2016, until this day we still testing, developing, and executing new ideas to make a better experience. New sections have been created, and new challenges had arisen but thanks to the work put behind since the beginning the Nuestra Voz is been able to iterate and keep up with the changes of time.
Circulation grew from 5K to 51K copies, distributed in more than 80 parishes through Brooklyn and Queens. Has witnessed some of the most significant local, national and international events in the Religious and Cultural world featuring some of the best columnists, reporters, and writers in the Hispanic media. Social media reaches 6 million people, having 180K+ Facebook followers.
The next plan is to launch a website redesign, a possible app, and create more exciting ways to interact with the brand.
Phase 2 – Outcomes
Nuestra Voz has been awarded 124 Catholic Press Association Awards since 2014. Winning first place for Best Publication Award 2018, 2021, and Best Newspaper Redesign in 2018.
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Let’s connect!
I’d love to hear from you.