Prescott Shibles - B2B Internet Marketing and Media Insight

I read this issue of Fast Company on the plane home today (yes, the print version), and I realized how much of an influence a conversation that Jennie Lee, our Creative Director, and I had prior to her coming on board last year had on me personally as well as Penton. If you don't have time to pick up a copy, you can find the stories here.

A year ago, Penton (then Prism) was struggling with design, from its management to our execution. Jennie laid out why we were struggling and how we could change things by looking discussing market and product needs with design, instead of throwing wireframes and design mandates to a designer to make it look pretty. She had me read Creating the Perfect Design Brief, and it really helped me understand what the potential of our design team could be.

We set goals, and we aimed high. By this awards season, we wanted to win a NEAL award, a min's Best of the Web award, and perhaps even a Webby award. I'm pleased to say that we had three NEAL nominations last year (a year ahead of our goal), two min's BOW awards -- including best redesign for Broadcast Engineering, and Reel Exchange was named one of BtoB's 10 Great Media sites.

Jennie, thank you for making me see that innovative companies see design as a critical component to their company's leadership. I read Fast Company and found myself saying "YES!" frequently and realized that we've only taken a step towards where we need to go in terms of elevating our brands through excellence in design. It got me excited. I can't wait to take our commitment to excellence to the next level.

I wonder if other companies experienced similar struggles? Is there friction between print designers and Web designers? Are magazines resistant to ideas that don't "look like the magazine"? If so, how are you handling those challenges? Feel free to leave a comment below.