Cross Pollination

At the end of 2014 I had the pleasure to redesign Air Cargo World (ACW) – the oldest and most respected title in Air Cargo & Logistics, for the first time in nearly a decade. The makeover was an almost total redesign – with updated news sections, new feature layouts, and new infographics throughout. This issue is from the spring of 2015.

This issue focused on increasing trade frequency between South America (primarily Brazil, Chile, and Colombia) and Asia (primarily China, Taiwan, and Japan). Although an Air Cargo trade publication, the nature of stories like this reveals that any shipping industry publication is fundamentally about the flow of trade, not necessarily the specific mode. High tech items head from Asia to Latin America, and finished products and perishables return.

A good designer has to understand what these stories are about to illustrate them – and the more you know, the better the result. I wrote most of ACW’s headlines in this period, and continue to write the headlines, cutlines, and often the captions for most stories I illustrate.

It’s also important to play to the core audience – Secondary features included an examination of changes in Canada’s express market, primarily the awarding of the Canada Post/Purolator courier contract to Cargojet, after many years with Kelowna Flightcraft, and Kelowna’s subsequent reinvention.

The work of reinventing ACW was not limited to just a new visual treatment – I was also responsible for all of the production duties up to and including purchasing bulk paper for the magazine to be printed on; migrating ACW‘s website from a Drupal setup to WordPress, and in handling many logistical hurdles in the handoff from previous owner OAG to new owner RoyalMedia.

Those included learning (then teaching to others) the procedures for ad tracking (print and digital), digital editions, digital edition ad insertions, and a variety of other tasks. It was a big (but fun) job – and the title was much better for the effort.