Editorial Brand Development & Relaunch / Axial Forum, now Middle Market Review
Brand Development
Editorial Design
Website Design
Digital & Print Production
Insights on the Middle Market.
A publication can’t be trusted if it sounds like a sales pitch.
Axial’s content was already building a loyal following among dealmakers. To become the go-to source for the middle market, it needed a voice and a look of its own, separate from the platform behind it.
Middle Market Review (originally Axial Forum) covers private capital markets for the lower middle market, companies with roughly $5 million to $100 million in annual revenue, through articles, data, and analysis for business owners, M&A advisors, and investors.
CASE STUDY
From company blog to industry publication
SITUATION
Forum was Axial’s publishing platform for the middle market, covering industry activity, deal trends, and best practices from active dealmakers. But as long as it looked like Axial, readers would see it as marketing, not as an independent voice on the market.
TASK
Give Forum its own identity, clearly distinct from the Axial brand.
Make it feel like a credible, independent publication that dealmakers would read and share.
Create a system flexible enough for daily articles, data reports, and print.
ACTION
1. Built a separate editorial brand. Created a visual identity for Forum that stood apart from Axial’s, so it could earn trust as its own voice on the middle market.
2. Designed the publication. Led the website design and the look of its content formats, from articles to data-driven leaderboards and sector reports.
3. Took it beyond the screen. Extended the brand into print and out-of-home, including billboards.
4. Evolved it as the publication grew. When Forum was renamed Middle Market Review, the brand carried forward into its next chapter.
RESULT
A relaunched publication that was, in the words of Axial’s product marketing lead, “universally praised (both internally and externally).”
An independent editorial voice for Axial, still publishing today as Middle Market Review, a weekly source of market insights and data for dealmakers.
“I consider myself lucky to have worked with Clarissa. Not only is she a phenomenal designer, but she is also a phenomenal colleague. She brings positivity and motivation to the entire team. I worked with Clarissa on several projects, the largest being a complete re-brand and re-launch of a daily publication for M&A. She was able to drive that project, translating abstract concepts and sentiments into robust and extensive design, yielding a product that was universally praised (both internally and externally). The speed and professionalism of her work made the project a breeze. I truly hope to work with Clarissa again in the future, and would jump at the opportunity if it were to present itself.”
— Billy F., Sr. Director Product Marketing + Demand Generation