Guildford Borough Council – design

Category: Communications, Marketing

Guildford Brough Council serves 145,000 residents across the Borough of Guildford in Surrey.

The council’s 20PP magazine, ‘Contact Point’ is produced three times per year and 5,500 copies are printed and delivered to every Guildford Borough Council tenant address.

The magazine provides a communications platform for the council to keep tenants informed and regularly up to date with information, which tenants welcome.

Our brief is to provide an informative, attractive and interesting magazine that will engage tenants. We are constantly improving the design and content of each publication.

Contact Point is informative and user-friendly and tenants have commented they like to receive the magazine because it informs them of events and activities in their area – the magazine compliments the council’s other channels of communication and is another platform to get information out about their community.

The council’s partners also recognise the value that Contact Point provides and regularly send information to be included.

The magazine has its own distinct brand and identity but clearly aligns with the council’s overarching brand identity. This distinctive design has also been implemented across other marketing collateral such as flyers and posters.

Our role is to co-ordinate and facilitate the production of each issue from planning through to copywriting and design. We also liaise with the council’s internal print team and accessibility officer.

Each issue includes tips and advice, poems, letters, children’s quizzes and photo competitions which improve the publication and make it even more engaging. We are never short of stories or articles from tenants!

We introduced a ‘tenant story’ stamp which is incorporated into articles submitted by tenants. We also incorporate good quality photos, lots of colour, easy to understand text and avoid ‘corporate speak’.