1220 FIFTH

Organization Information:

Organization Name:
Museum of the City of New York
City & State:
New York, 
New York
Organization Website:
www.mcny.org
Organization's Mission Statement
The Museum of the City of New York celebrates and interprets the city, educating the public about its distinctive character, especially its heritage of diversity, opportunity, and perpetual transformation. Founded in 1923 as a private, non-profit corporation, the Museum connects the past, present, and future of New York City. It serves the people of New York and visitors from around the world through exhibitions, school and public programs, publications, and collections.

Submission Information

Impact Essay
1220 FIFTH, the Museum of the City of New York’s new magazine for members, was created using the Adobe program Indesign CS2. The Museum has been using the Adobe Creative Suite since 2003, ever since Senior Graphic Designer Tanya Pramongkit switched from Quark Express to Adobe and never went back. Ms. Pramongkit has used Adobe products to create hundreds of printed materials for the Museum, from exhibition brochures to invitations to gallery signs to bimonthly program calendars, in addition to the Museum’s newest effort in print media, 1220 FIFTH. 1220 FIFTH serves the Museum in several ways, chief among them a tool in the pursuance of its mission to bring the city’s past to life, connecting it to the present, and informing our future. 1220 FIFTH also helps to increase membership because the magazine is an added benefit of membership; to secure funding for the Museum’s activities by serving as a vehicle for acknowledging funders of exhibitions and programs; and to promote interest in subjects that the Museum considers crucial to the viability of the city, including sustainability, preservation, and appreciation of the city’s great ethnic diversity. All of these goals and more are demonstrated in the premier issue of 1220 FIFTH, which set the tone for forthcoming issues with features on Sustaining the City, Preserving the City, Rebuilding the City, and Metro Mavens, in addition to reports on upcoming exhibitions and programs. But a magazine must be much more than rich in content. It must also have an exciting look, and this is where Indesign CS2 proved invaluable. The Adobe Creative Suite really works well together. I could work on Illustrator to create logos and graphs and I can copy and paste into the Indesign layout. Photoshop is a great tool for me to edit the colors and adjust the lightness and darkness of each photo. The software programs are so supportive of each other. I was very happy to switch to Adobe as it works better than when I used the Quark Xpress to do the layout. The Museum received many kudos for the first issue, including the following, from a media professional: Congratulations on the first issue of "1220 Fifth"! It's superb. The cover design is terrific and draws the reader in immediately. The magazine is just the right combination of text and visuals; the articles are intriguing and a good length, and the graphic design is engaging and compelling. The tag line also looks great on the cover and immediately makes sense of all that's to come inside. Overall, the magazine effectively projects the Museum as vibrant and vital and makes you want to visit. I consider myself a tough critic, and I think it's excellent! Moreover, creating 1220 FIFTH using Indesign CS2 allows the Museum to print a limited run of copies for members, donors, and other friends of the Museum and also send it in PDF format to potential new members, donors, and friends.
Submission Category
Environmental Impact Print/Photo
Supporting Work Files