3 Reasons Your Association Magazine Looks Dated — and What to Do About It

It can be fun to go back into the archives of your association’s magazine and see how the look and feel has changed over the years — especially if you’ve been producing a magazine for decades. 

The style of your magazine speaks for your organization, and it clearly represents the era you’re in. If your 2025 publication is still using layouts from the late ’90s or typefaces from 2012, it’s going to look dated. Why does it matter? If your magazine looks stale, members may assume the same about your programs.

Safe and Vault magazine launched in 1958. Today’s design reflects a modern, forward-looking membership. 

To help bring your magazine into the now, watch out for three common design choices that age a magazine — and the simple fixes to bring it up to date. 

1. Your Typography Feels Frozen in Time

“What makes a publication feel dated? The primary thing that comes to mind is font choices. Not just the fonts themselves, but how they’re used, where they’re used.” —Ben Carpenter, m3Magazines director of print strategy

Typography ages faster than you might think. Fonts that seemed cutting-edge a decade ago now scream old news. m3Magazines’ director of print strategy, Ben Carpenter, warns against fonts that are marketed as futuristic. “Those kinds of fonts that are supposed to look futuristic are the first to look old,” he says. 

But it’s not just about the fonts themselves; it’s how you use them. Carpenter points to captions as a telltale sign of how typography use has evolved. “It used to be that you would see captions in little tiny serif fonts. But nowadays you’ll only see pure serif fonts in the body copy and everything else is either going to be sans serif or some kind of decorative serif fonts.”

The Fix 

Take a critical look at your current font palette. Are you using more than three different typefaces? Are your accent fonts overly ornate or obviously trendy? Modern magazine design favors cleaner typography with strategic variety.

Consider these contemporary font combinations:

• Minion Pro (body text) with Proxima Nova (headlines and captions)
• Georgia (body text) with Montserrat (headlines) and Source Sans Pro (captions)
• Caslon (body text) with modern slab serifs like Rockwell or Clarendon for accents

2. Your Layouts Are Too Rigid

Modern magazine design embraces flexibility, but many association publications still cling to restrictive grids that make every page look identical.

This shift toward flexible design means pages can breathe. A feature might have a large photo with minimal text that doesn’t fill every column, and that’s perfectly acceptable. “Sometimes it can look great to have a big photo and a little bit of text and maybe it doesn’t fill up all the columns all the way,” Carpenter notes.

The Fix

Audit your current layouts, and ask: 

• Do all your feature stories look nearly identical? 
• Are you forcing content into rigid templates that don’t serve the story? 

Modern design allows for variation while maintaining consistency through typography, color and spacing. Consider creating multiple layout options for different types of content, giving your designers freedom to match form to function.

3. Your Content Presentation Lacks Visual Breaks

Dense blocks of text signal old-school publishing. Today’s readers expect content broken into digestible chunks with plenty of visual relief.

“It’s much more the style now to break things up. Lots of subheads and lots of art.” —Ben Carpenter, m3Magazines director of print strategy

The reorganization of copy is about more than design trends, it’s about reading habits. Members scanning your magazine want clear entry points and stopping places, especially if your publication doubles as an online magazine. Walls of text can feel overwhelming when viewed on a phone or tablet. 

The Fix

• Work with your editorial team to restructure long articles. 
• Add subheads every few paragraphs.
• Incorporate pull quotes.
• Use bullet points or numbered lists where appropriate. 
• Add sidebar content, infographics or photos to create visual variety.

Avoid the Trend Trap

While updating your magazine design is important, Carpenter warns against chasing every new trend. Not only is it hard to keep up with every new color scheme or font pairing, but “The trendy things are going to be the first things to look dated.”

Association magazines serve members over multiple years, so design choices should have staying power. “It’s better to stick with the classics,” Carpenter says.

The Shelf Life of a Magazine

A magazine’s design shouldn’t sit untouched for decades, nor should it transform with each new trend. Most association titles benefit from a full redesign roughly every seven years. This span lets the brand mature without letting layouts grow stale or feel out of touch. Clues that it’s time for a refresh include: 

• Member feedback feels lukewarm. If members are no longer reading and responding to your magazine, one reason may be design. 
• Your brand has evolved. If you’ve recently undergone a rebranding in mission, strategic vision or digital pivot, a visual reset can ensure your magazine keeps up. 
• Design is getting in the way of content. If your strict grid or feature/department structure is making new story formats impossible, it’s time to redesign. 

Your Design Refresh Options

Not every magazine needs a complete overhaul. If your magazine feels slightly stale, small tweaks that can be implemented quickly without much disruption might be enough to bump it from dated to delightful. 

• Update your typography.
• Loosen your grid slightly.
• Incorporate more visual breaks into your stories.

For magazines that haven’t been touched in a decade or feel completely disconnected from your current brand, a full redesign makes sense. This process typically involves rethinking your grid system, color palette, typography and content presentation from the ground up.

Why Redesign? 

Your association magazine represents your organization’s voice and values. When the design feels current and engaging, it signals that your association is forward-thinking and connected to members’ needs.

Pro Tip: Take time every two to three years to critically evaluate your publication. Compare it to other magazines your members might read. Notice what feels fresh and what feels dated. 

The goal isn’t to be the most on-trend or contemporary magazine on the market, but to ensure your magazine design highlights your content in the best way possible to connect with your members. When form and function align, your magazine becomes a powerful tool for member engagement and organizational growth