County Connection Newsletter

Connecting Orange County employees with news from every public department

Client

County of Orange

Introduction:

County Connection is a monthly newsletter distributed to all public employees of the County of Orange. It compiles news, updates, essential information, and events from each Orange County public department.

Project Brief:

Our goal was to initiate a complete redesign to increase reader engagement, enhance visual appeal, and present County Connection as a dynamic digital magazine.

Research and Inspiration:

In the early months of updating County Connection, I noticed a lack of creativity and visual excitement in the layout. My aim was to transform it into something more akin to a high-profile magazine, with a focus on larger graphics and a structured, modern design based on a standardized grid system. This new approach led to more concise writing and a cleaner article structure. Serving as the department photographer, I shot images with a clear vision of how they would later appear within the final magazine layout.

Introduction:

Project Brief:

Our goal was to initiate a complete redesign to increase reader engagement, enhance visual appeal, and present County Connection as a dynamic digital magazine.

Research and Inspiration:

Concept Development:

During a slower period, I took the opportunity to create a 40-page proof of concept to present to supervisors. They were impressed by the visual transformation and immediately saw how this new style would attract more readers. The redesign also offered a practical benefit: by rebuilding the working file, changing stories and graphics became quicker and more efficient, allowing us to invest more time in enhancing the visual presentation.

Design Execution:

Using Adobe InDesign, I drew inspiration from iconic magazines like Sports Illustrated, GQ, and Vogue to understand effective grid structures and presentation styles. I started with InDesign’s Master Pages feature to create a consistent grid layout and designated page markers. Each magazine section was color-coded and branded uniquely, yet unified within the overall design. The templates gave prominent space to larger photos, and placeholder text sections with set word counts helped writers keep their articles concise. Additionally, all evergreen content could be easily updated with adjustments to the master page items.

Outcome and Analysis:

Each new monthly edition of County Connection is published on ISSUU, an online platform that displays PDFs as interactive, flip-through magazines. The new presentation format boosted readership by 300% compared to the previous layout. Not only did public employees engage more with the newsletter, but regular citizens of Orange County also began reading it!

Conclusion:

This project taught me the value of taking initiative when there’s an opportunity to improve. Though this redesign wasn’t initially necessary, I wanted to make County Connection visually exciting and create a more efficient workflow. By redesigning the working file, I was able to tailor it for ease of future updates, ensuring that each edition remains fresh and visually engaging.

Read all County Connection back issues at issuu.com/ocgov

Travis LaRiviere

Design

Illustration

Visual

Painting

About

Shop