Police Chief Magazine

The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) is the world's largest and most influential professional association for police leaders, with over 33,000 members in more than 170 countries.

The Challenge

Though highly respected and widely read,Though highly respected and widely read, Police Chief magazine had maintained a straightforward design style for decades. It was functional, but increasingly out of step with the expectations of a contemporary readership. The IACP recognized the need to evolve the magazine's visual identity to better represent the complex nature of modern policing and the global scope of its readership. The challenge was to refresh the magazine's design while respecting its legacy and maintaining clarity, authority, and trust.

Strategies

Branding & Strategy
Print Solutions

Two open spreads of Police Chief magazine displayed on a light blue surface. The top spread features an article titled “Effective Case Triage: The Structured Professional Judgment Approach,” with a photo of two investigators reviewing documents and a digital lens graphic. The spread beneath it shows an article titled “Co-Creating New Pathways for Youth Engagement,” with images of young people and officers participating in community and classroom activities.

Solutions

We began the Police Chief redesign project with a deep discovery phase,We began the Police Chief redesign project with a deep discovery phase, including a visual audit of past issues, stakeholder interviews, and a review of contemporary trends in professional publications. The redesigned magazine featured bolder, more dynamic imagery, improved use of photography, an improved typographic hierarchy, and a modernized, flexible grid-based layout that enhanced readability across all aspects of the magazine, from columns and departments to full-length features. The new flexible grid was created to give designers and editors tools to nimbly flow text and visuals across sections while providing readers a clear sense of place. We worked with IACP leadership to strike a careful balance between visual impact and editorial integrity, positioning the magazine to engage a more design-savvy audience.

Let’s Talk About Your Publication.

Two open spreads of Police Chief magazine displayed on a split brown and green background. The left spread features an article titled 'Red Team / Blue Team: How Ireland Is Staying Ahead in a Volatile Cyberthreat Landscape,' with a dark green design and map graphics. The right spread continues the article with text-heavy pages and a photo of a cityscape in Ireland, discussing cybersecurity strategies and collaboration between law enforcement and digital defenders.

Two open spreads of Police Chief magazine displayed on a brown and blue surface. The left spread features an article titled 'Teaming Up to Crack Cold Cases: Michigan State Police-Western Michigan University Cold Case Program,' with an image of a man's face overlaid with digital data graphics. The right spread continues the article with text columns and a photo of a woman reviewing case files in an evidence archive.

TGD Creative Strategies & Solutions has successfully produced the magazine on time and redesigned it. Moreover, they’ve used Jira to manage the project and are flexible and responsive to the client’s needs. Overall, the team goes above and beyond to deliver a quality publication every month.

Danielle Gudakunst
Managing Editor,
Police Chief Magazine