Forward was Birmingham City Council’s fortnightly newsletter, delivered to 250,000 homes around the city between 2004 and 2009. My brief was to redesign the layout of the publication, allowing space for more copy and pictures – but without an increase in page size or numbers.

The redesign also called for a more efficient workflow for production, within the current budget and staffing restrictions. I produced a flexible 12-column grid, with space for around 1,000 words per page, along with an increase in type size to address accessibility concerns. A library of ready-made layouts, automated image processing, a custom dingbats typeface – ‘Forward’ – and a comprehensive style guide were also produced.