Four Seasons is not generally in the content or magazine business. That said, their business relies on content to enhance their relationship with their customers, drive sales and shape consumer perception of the brand. Thus Four Seasons Magazine was born. Custom content agency Pace Communications engaged me to develop design concepts for the magazine that would be desirable from a brand point of view, resistant to feeling stale (based on a sporadic publishing schedule) and easy to maintain for the client.

I performed a survey of the existing assets and mixed a moodboard of materials that –while clearly connected with the Four Seasons brand– would be surprising when looked at together; exotic creatures met on safari in the Serengeti, a Latin-spiced art walk in Miami, the simple luxury of Turkish breakfast at the Four Seasons Sultanahmet.

Then I dug into the behavior. Our readers would be most likely to consume the content while physically visiting a Four Season property. Unlike traditional online consumers, they probably would enter through a homepage and pick content from a visually appealing lineup, rather than via search. A user might visit the homepage several times in a 3-day span, but not visit again for months. How can we keep the table of contents engaging?

My solution was a dynamic masonry layout that randomized per user session, mixing together article teasers images, headline and inspirational quotes.