The editorial team at UT Journal, the alumni magazine of The University of Tampa, spent months planning how to cover the career of the university president, who retired after nearly 30 years. The main challenge? There was so much to say and only so much space to say it. Plus, we needed to present the story in a new way, as the Journal’s audience was already well familiar with this president and his accomplishments.
Enter the double gatefold timeline, which gave us room to plot 30 years of university and presidential history and created a “wow factor” for our readers. It was nestled inside the pages of an exit-interview-like Q&A in our Spring 2024 issue, unfolding and unfolding yet again, subtly reinforcing that this president led the university for an exceptionally long time.
Our team had completed a similar project previously, a perforated roll fold poster announcing a new campus bell tower, so we were familiar with special printing techniques. However, the double gatefold had a few unique challenges. We used a supplied template to determine size and specs, but accommodating the gutter meant adjusting the graphics to ensure the design floated seamlessly across pages. Deciding not to add page numbers to the timeline entailed carefully renumbering the other magazine pages. And finally, the double gatefold was printed separately from and before the rest of the magazine, requiring us to finalize the timeline ahead of the complete feature package.
The gatefold added about 30% to our issue’s production costs, which we found to be worth the investment given our goals for this feature and—in hindsight—the praise we have received for it.
Holly Neumann, Editor
Erin Dixon, Art Director
UT Journal, The University of Tampa
