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Texas Monthly

Readers call it “The National Magazine of Texas” for a reason. Founded in 1973 in Austin, and now beloved by readers across the globe, Texas Monthly covers the Lone Star State’s news, politics, culture, music, and — yes — barbecue.

We worked with Texas Monthly to channel the magazine's unique energy into a dynamic website as big and as bold as the state itself.

What We Did

  • Content Strategy
  • Visual Design
  • Front-end Development
  • WordPress Integration

Live Site

Texas Monthly article: 15 Innnovators Shaping Texas

01Dynamic by Design

We set out to reinvigorate Texas Monthly’s digital strategy and bring its distinctive editorial voice to the web. Our guiding theme: take inspiration from Texas’s scale, diversity, and contradictions — think densely-packed cities surrounded by awe-inspiring rural space — and apply them visually.

This didn’t just mean a dramatic visual redesign: we also worked closely with Texas Monthly’s web editors to build sophisticated new tools to serve a wide range of article types and styles, take advantage of the rapid cadence of daily web publishing, and provide readers with the navigational structures that promote exploration and return visits.

Editors have complete control over the home page to curate on a story-by-story basis or use automated modules that pull articles by issues, category, or content types (like podcasts or videos). Article components are similarly flexible — toppers are designed to support multiple permutations of headline and art, and to scale up from inset photos to screen-wide videos.

Texas Monthly home page Texas Monthly article topper: Can the Rockets Repeat Game Four?
Food & Drink category page
Kacey Musgraves
Luxury tent under night skey
This is the new texasmonthlycom Better. Sharper. Livelier. Friendlier. Texas-ier.
Article Topper: War of Words: Meet the Texan Trolling for Putin
Typography with drop cap
Texas landscape
Subscribe Today with Texas Monthly magazine covers

Masthead

Masthead

Monogram

TM monogram

Color

Color swatches: red-orange, beiges, gray

Icons & Indicators

icons for galleries, video, audio, menu, link, search

Type

Chronicle typeface
Grifo typeface
Ringside typeface
Grifinito typeface

02A First-Class Mobile Experience

We also ensured that mobile users’ experience was second-to-none: that’s why we sweated the details when it came to art direction, typography, and navigational controls, all optimized for small screens. Stories, image galleries, and video all get touch-first controls, while sharing tools and wayfinding are never more than a tap away.

The List: The Top 50 Barbecue Joins in Texas
Why We Should Go Back to the Coast
With God On Their Side
A Brief History of Texas Innovators
Kacey Musgraves Has a Surprise for Nashville
Pullquote: if you forget your bug repellant, mix a little water with dirt to create an all-natural paste that will help keep mosquiteoes at bay
Sandcastles
Table of Contents

03Going Big with Events

Finally, the Texas Monthly team runs a wide variety of events, from music and BBQ festivals in Austin to wine tours in the Napa Valley. We overhauled the site’s events pages and built a system of flexible components for schedules, performers, FAQs, and more. We added one-click Eventbrite integrations so a user can easily register and buy tickets for different events.

The Edge of Texas
Edge of Texas — Buy Tickets
Texas Blueberry Festival
Texas Monthly Explores Napa 2018
Texas Monthly Whiskey Affair 2018

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