Entry Details

About the Entry

Category: 
Design > Publication Design > Upper Midwest

Title of entry: 
October-November 2024 and December-January 2024 hfm

Issue or Publication date:
October-November 2024; December-January 2024

Publication name: 
hfm

View Website home page:
hfma.org

Links to entry URLs

Please note: These URLs are only required for entries in the Online division categories, or digital entries in appropriate Overall Excellence, Design or All Content division categories.

Entry URL(s), if applicable:
Please enter a URL that will direct judges to the entry: 
https://www.hfma.org/hfm-magazine/hfm-october-november-2024/
Additional URLs, if needed:
https://www.hfma.org/hfm-magazine/hfm-december-2024-january-2025/

Links to Uploaded Entry Files

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Entry Essay: 
The overall design of hfm has been conceived intentionally to serve the needs and interests of its core readership of senior finance leaders of U.S. hospitals and health systems. This audience is primarily interested in being well-informed about the full range of financial topics germane to healthcare in the United States.

These finance executives are sophisticated and very busy professionals, so it is important to strike a balance between providing them with informative and in-depth content and presenting it so it can be quickly absorbed and understood.

For this reason, all articles, columns and departments are edited and designed to be as brief, readable and visually engaging as possible, while always acknowledging the underlying purpose of informing readers. Ample use of white space enhances readability, and copy is broken up variously with subheads and bulleted lists. Additional visual interest is created on page spreads throughout, with sidebars, photos, exhibits, pull quotes and number highlights. Care is taken to avoid having any page be filled solely with an unbroken swath of copy that would impair readability.
How content is organized is also a critical consideration for this audience. The different types of content (e.g., cover stories, expert-reviewed features, Q&As, columns, department, sponsored pieces) therefore have distinct designs that help clearly differentiate them from each other. And the design hierarchy is mapped out in the Table of Contents and in headers that run across the tops of the article pages.

The cover stories, in particular, stand out through the use of a greater concertation of visual elements and color. Color is always used with intent, creating a strong connection between the magazine’s front cover and the cover story design. And considerable time and resources are devoted to making the cover image more compelling through photo shoots and occasional illustrations, which are complemented with corresponding images in the cover story’s opening spread.

All of these defining characteristics are exemplified in the October-November 2024 and the December-2024-January 2025.