For three years, I art directed and designed Business Alabama magazine and two annual publications for PMT Publishing. Business Alabama is a monthly publication covering companies big and small across the state’s economic landscape—from manufacturing to finance to homegrown startups.
Designing a monthly magazine is all about rhythm—and knowing exactly when to break it. Some pages followed templates. Every month in the center spread (or “in the well”) I felt the freedom to explore a new layout or freshen up an old layout. That’s where the layout rules bent, the typography played, and fresh ideas got their moment. Every issue brought a new opportunity to experiment.
Alongside Business Alabama, I also art directed Top Rank and the Economic Development Guide for the State of Alabama—two hefty, info-packed annuals. Top Rank was the beast: a deep dive into Alabama’s business rankings across industries, compiled from a year’s worth of monthly lists. It was heavy on data, but the final design kept things sharp, structured, and readable. The annual Economic Development Guide leaned more editorial—clean, clear, and built to communicate.
A few of my favorite layouts from Business Alabama, Top Rank and the Economic Development Guide are below.
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I art directed and designed the Top Rank annual publication in 2019 and 2020. Each month, Business Alabama printed an industry-specific ranking of Alabama businesses. Top Rank pulled them all together into one big, data-packed powerhouse. It took a lot of list-wrangling, spreadsheet-sorcery, and design finesse to make numbers look this good.
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I was the art director for the Economic Development Guide for the state of Alabama in 2019 and in 2020. This publication leaned more editorial—clean, clear, and built to communicate.
