cai magazIne toc
cai magazIne-spread2
cai-rm-cover and spread

CAI is an international organization dedicated to creating better covenant-governed communities, with 61 chapters worldwide. Taking inspiration from our client CAI Rocky Mountain, the Southern Colorado Chapter wanted to put together a quarterly printed informational magazine for members and supporting associates.

Articles cover topics such as community maintenance, finance, and dealing with homeowners, while also including paid advertisements to offset the cost of the publication.

Client: CAI, Rocky Mountain and SoCo Chapters

Deliverables: bi-monthly and quarterly print and digital publications

What we did.

This publication needed to be flexible in nature—the quantity of articles and ads as well as their length and content all vary from issue to issue. We needed a template that included as many ‘reusable’ elements as possible, such as byline and author blocks and four different spread layouts based on image orientation and length of article.

But CAI wanted each article to stand on its own and not look like the article before it. This is accomplished using a wide variety of visuals and weaving elements of the main image throughout the spread. This is where the designer’s creativity comes into play.

A fun, vibrant color palette was chosen to help appeal to the younger industry professionals. The thin connecting rule from the masthead is used as repeating design element throughout; even the spine of the printed publication provides another change to highlight this yellow accent.

Why it works.

The wide variety of article templates and visual styles allows for the flexibility of this magazine design. As new articles from differing authors comes in for each issue, the layout designer has a few options for text layout, allowing them to concentrate on the visual appeal of each article. Each issue is limited to 8-10 articles, further increasing the readability of what could easily be a lack-luster publication.