How considered editorial design brought BPAS's internal staff magazine to life

Internal publications are easy to underestimate. They don't win pitches, they don't generate leads, and they rarely get talked about outside the organisation. But for the people who receive them, a well-designed internal magazine can do something quietly powerful; remind staff why they're there, connect dispersed teams around a shared identity, and make individuals feel seen and valued within a larger mission.

That's what we set out to support when the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) asked us to design their internal staff magazine.

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The brief

BPAS came to us with supplied content, imagery and an established set of brand guidelines. Our role wasn't to reimagine the brand or rewrite the content; it was to bring structure, clarity and editorial quality to the material they already had, and to apply their visual framework in a way that felt considered and consistent from cover to cover.

For a charity like BPAS, that brief carries a particular weight. An internal publication needs to do more than look on brand. It needs to organise information clearly, give different types of content enough variety to stay engaging, celebrate individual contributions and team milestones, and, perhaps most importantly; foster a sense of shared purpose among staff who may rarely be in the same room.

Getting that balance right requires more than layout skills. It requires an understanding of the audience, the mission, and the small design decisions that guide a reader through a publication without them noticing.

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The approach

We began by onboarding the BPAS brand guidelines thoroughly, not just understanding the rules but thinking carefully about how they should work in practice across layouts, typography, imagery and content hierarchy. The distinction matters.

Guidelines tell you what's allowed; good editorial design requires judgement about what works.

With content and imagery provided by the BPAS team, our focus was on shaping those assets into a more cohesive reading experience. That meant improving visual flow, creating stronger page rhythm, refining layout decisions, and identifying where small design choices could add meaningful value; a considered use of white space here, a stronger content hierarchy there.

The aim was never to impose our aesthetic preferences on a client's publication. It was to support their direction with thoughtful decisions that made the finished result feel more engaging and more purposeful.

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The result

The finished magazine aligns closely with the BPAS brand and feels genuinely tailored to its internal audience; clear, well-structured and carefully laid out throughout. For the staff who receive it, we hope it does what a good internal publication should: makes people feel informed and connected, gives them a sense of belonging to something bigger than their individual role, and reflects the real-world difference the organisation makes every day. That last point matters particularly for hybrid and dispersed teams who don't have the benefit of daily face-to-face contact with colleagues.

We're pleased with how it came together - and BPAS are too.

“Thank you so much for all your hard work on this project; we’re thrilled with the result and already looking forward to the next edition.”

Hannah Tretheway

Internal Communications Officer, BPAS