Editor's Letter - November 2007

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DESIGN YOUR LIFE

Design as a fundamental component in the success of business products has received a great deal of attention in recent years. It’s getting even more attention around here now that we’ve won a national award for ours. As Prosper went to press, we learned we had won Folio Magazine’s Ozzie Award for the redesign of Prosper. We beat out two mega-publishing houses: Rodale Press’ flagship product Prevention and a Ziff-Davis electronic gaming magazine.

To steal from James Brown: We feel good!

As anyone who has ever developed a product knows, design is an exciting and treacherous part of the process. And it’s never more true than when designing a magazine. Writing, photography, illustration … all these elements either work in harmony to create something greater than its parts or veer toward cacophony and tear the fabric of a publication apart.

About a year ago, we began the redesigning and rebranding of Prosper, not just the look and feel but also in the way we approached prosperity and how we engaged the marketplace. So we closely examined what prosperity means to our readers and to this region. In many ways, it was a journey into the unknown.

We were sure we could find unique, compelling and inspiring people who were trying to make a difference in business, in life and in their communities. The problem? No magazine, let alone a regional business publication, had ever done that consistently. And we took a big leap of faith when we decided to use the economic rigor of the business world as our tool to analyze the choices each of us confronts in working smart, living well and giving back.

Now, as you hold our sixth redesigned issue in your hands, and we hold a national award in ours, we believe our approach has been validated. Credit is due to every member of our team, but especially to our art director Stephanie Butts and to Brent Rector of Fuel Creative Group. Together, they created the design that has garnered us national notice. And design itself remains crucial to our work. This month’s issue looks at the business of design in a unique way — the economic intricacies of wine label design (see page 52) — and also focuses on how people in this region are trying to “design” their minds and bodies to stay forever young (see page 44).

The design process, and Prosper, both seem to have a lot going for them.

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