The Hammock Blog

We knew the cover would have to celebrate both that birthday and also the 235th Birthday of the United States of America. So we decided to bake the patriotic cake shown here which is adorned with iconic American images.

What we didn’t know was that there’d be a gift coming for American Spirit and DAR.

The magazine had begun arriving in mailboxes when we received word on June 28 that American Spirit had won its eighth Apex Award Grand Award.

The announcement also fell on the eve of DAR’s annual Continental Congress held in Washington, D.C., American Spirit editor Jamie Roberts and Hammock ceo Rex Hammock are attending the Congress, so they delivered the good news and also joined in the dual birthday celebrations.

One of the best-known and most celebrated women’s organizations in America, DAR has published a magazine continuously since 1892. American Spirit is the latest incarnation, honoring DAR’s core values of God, home and country.

Each issue of American Spirit explores topics that support DAR’s dedication to historical preservation, promotion of education and encouragement of patriotic endeavor.

Sponsored by the editors of Writing That Works: The Business Communications Report, the 23rd APEX Awards competition received 3,329 entries, including 529 in magazines and journals. Only 100 Grand Awards were issued.

American Spirit was entered in the non-profit category, and the judges showered it with praise:

“This is a spectacular magazine on so many levels. The use of typography is almost an art form in itself, photography is world class, and the feature articles are captivating."

We feel much the same way, and, judging from rising circulation figures, so do our readers. And that takes the cake.

That's not unusual. We've been rethinking it constantly since we first launched it in 1995.

I used to think a website -- the design and structure part -- should last for a couple of years. While I've always thought the content should constantly change, I thought the "look" and "feel" should stay fairly constant. Such a personal bias can be seen in my 10-year-old blog. Despite undergoing three or four significant re-designs and three changes in content management systems, even a regular reader would be hard-pressed to point out anything that has changed about the design of RexBlog. Being subtle with the changes sometimes is more difficult than a major overhaul.

I've also always believed (and still do) that different people visit a site for different reasons and a company should make the site's navigation flexible enough for any of those reasons to be satisfied. Unfortunately, I've discovered over the years that no matter how flexible you make a site, it won't work for everyone. So you keep trying.

Today, we've thrown out the two-year rule. Today, we accept the reality that a company's website design and structure should be constantly reconsidered. Things change -- rapidly. And the need to have a website change along with new ways people use the web should be a part of your approach to maintaining the site.

When you reach for a cover on a magazine stand, what is it that grabs your attention? Is it the photography? The enticing cover blurbs? The color?

Editor Megan Pacella sat down this week with our design team to talk about just those questions and one of our own publications. Let us know what you think!

This week, Hammock's design team let me pick their brains about the covers of our favorite magazines. After taking a look at 10 titles, each designer picked their favorite and explained why. The verdict?

For Lynne Boyer, the great photography and simple design of Garden and Gun is a winner. Kerri Davis was drawn to the big graphics and creative cover blurb placement of Texas Monthly, and Ben Stewart was drawn to ESPN's unique photo of basketball star Kobe Bryant kicking a soccer ball.

Check out the video and they'll tell you more—and reveal which big-name magazine cover they didn’t care for.