When our client John Cannon Homes asked us to design a “coffee table book” to showcase their extraordinary homes, we surprised them by suggesting a magazine format instead. A book makes a beautiful presentation for the first year it’s published, but over time it will lose its efficacy as a marketing tool as new homes are built and older floor plans and features are phased out. A magazine published once or twice a year would always be fresh as it introduces new homes, discusses design trends, and profiles new developments. They gave us the go ahead but with the stipulation that the quality level of the design, from paper stock to layout, must be equal to a book version.

We first came up with the “Live Well” name as an extension of our current marketing campaign. We chose a horizontal layout to maximize the photo area for the best views of the homes and the type and palette work with the John Cannon brand guidelines we developed. The departments were designed to be flexible to allow for many variations in content, length, and layout, and the features section makes the best use of large photos and floor plans. Finally, we selected a bright white heavy paper stock for a quality feel in your hands and no show-through between pages, a spot varnish on the photos to make them pop off the non-glare matt finish of the page, and a flat binding for a book-like edge. The result was celebrated by John Cannon, their home buyers and the real estate community.