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AEP Online |
AEP Award-Winner Profile - Teaching Tolerance Magazine: A Happy Marriage of Editorial and DesignThe AEP Awards represent the best materials in educational publishing and education marketing. Throughout the year, profiles of award winners will be published in AEP Online and posted on the AEP website to highlight innovations in product development, editorial practices, and marketing strategies. There are many educational periodicals published that contain excellent content; magazines with a flair for the visual exist as well. But when a publication's editorial and design elements effectively support and strengthen one another, the result is an award-winning educational magazine. How does this balance occur? Through an atmosphere of open communication and cooperation, said Brian Willoughby, former Managing Editor of Teaching Tolerance magazine. "I’m a word guy. He [Design Director Russell Estes] is an art guy. We know our roles, but at the same time we push each other toward the common goal of putting out a great issue," said Willoughby. Teaching Tolerance, a semi-annual publication that promotes respect for diversity in the classroom, has been a model of success and quality publishing since its inception in 1991. Its staff consistently achieves a parity between the visual medium and the written word that has won the publication a total of 17 AEP Awards in the last three years alone - including this year’s Most Improved Publication and Periodical of the Year Awards. According to Estes, having an editor that accepts the yin and yang of content and design is what makes his job easy. "Really the secret to our success is simple: an open collaboration between the two areas." Estes and other designers are present at story idea meetings, allowing for a back-and-forth flow of ideas from an issue's earliest conception. "Sometimes the design director's suggestions can get muffled in editorial meetings," he said. "Here, my voice is heard." The design team will then read story drafts, get some rough ideas for illustrations, and take those ideas back to the editorial staff for more discussion. The process is successful only when both sides are satisfied that they’ve produced a cohesive issue. Said Willoughby, "We're careful to make sure there are no jarring differences between pages and that the issue doesn't turn out reading like three different magazines." The staff at Teaching Tolerance also guards carefully against complacency. They keep a close eye on topic choices in order to avoid repetition, and they recently employed the help of focus groups to shift the tone of the magazine, resulting in a more user-friendly format. "Our goal is to produce the highest quality publication we can," said Estes. "We want to be setting the standard, not following it." Key to Success: By adopting a goal-oriented rather than task-focused approach to the product development process, the staff at Teaching Tolerance is able to consistently produce cohesive publications that successfully entice readers visually as well as intellectually. "There are conflicts, but the tension is great for creativity," said former Managing Editor Brian Willoughby.
Questions, ideas, or in need of more information? Please contact Stacey Pusey at 302-295-8349. |
To download a PDF of the complete profile on Teaching Tolerance, click here For more information on the AEP Awards, contact Doug Ferguson at 856-214-7772.
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