UAB Heersink School of Medicine
Print and Digital Publishing: External Audience
Bronze
The UAB Medicine Magazine is a print and digital magazine published by the UAB Heersink School of Medicine to highlight and bring awareness to the Heersink faculty, staff, and students' remarkable contributions to advancing science, patient care, and medical education. The Fall 2023 issue allows readers to learn more about the life's journey and leadership vision of the school’s newest dean, Anupam Agarwal, M.D. This issue focused on rolling out Agarwal as the school’s new leader while educating our audiences on who he is, his academic medicine journey, and his leadership plan. The issue also features various research efforts to develop new and better ways to prevent, treat, and ultimately cure diabetes. Meet a few of the many veterans whose military service shaped their careers in medicine and health care; learn about our new ALS Clinic; meet a medical student working to ensure "discharge with dignity" for all patients; and more.
What was the most impactful part of your entry?
For the first time, we focused on our stories' visual elements and how to pull readers into our storytelling efforts with visual concepts for photography versus using a traditional headshot. Doing so also allowed us to create more visually appealing digital campaigns around the Fall 2023 issue. Having a magazine landing page isn’t new. Still, the way we highlighted our features and created cohesive branding around the digital experience of reading the magazine is something we are proud to have accomplished with this issue. Reading a print copy of a magazine is hard to emulate online, but with the work of our digital and website team, we were able to create a similar experience that allowed the viewer to dive into the many pages of the magazine while also providing a way for readers just to read the highlights or features.
What challenge did you overcome?
Our biggest challenge for this issue was our visual efforts for the magazine. We challenged ourselves to elevate our photography concepts and think out of the box by creating dynamic and meaningful visuals for the print and digital versions of the magazine. Our design team developed concepts that went beyond traditional headshots, visually telling the stories written in the issue. For one photo shoot, instead of a standard headshot, we featured a physician who served in the Air Force. We used a projector to display images of his military service, creating a powerful backdrop highlighting his unique journey and experience – both things he touched on in the written part of the story. This innovative approach captured his professional essence and told a compelling story, adding depth and context to the photograph.
Contact:
Jessica Martindale
jmartindale@uab.edu