Travel Guidebook Redesign Case Study pt 3

In 2004, I was given the task to do a complete redesign of the famous Sanborn's Travelog guidebooks. In my first article, I wrote about the projects problem areas and my proposed solutions. In my previous article, I discussed the cover redesign process. In this article, I will go over the books’ revised structure and page layout design.

My page layout design

The first major change in each Travelog guidebook was to restructure the content. This was a long and arduous project in itself. Sanborn’s guidebooks are a mile-by-mile description that takes the reader by the hand and leads him from Point A to Point B. It reads as if the author is the co-pilot, telling the driver to turn right or left after x-number of blocks. Each “log” mentions stores, restaurants and other landmarks the driver will come across along the way. The original structure caused the reader to flip from front to back, to front over and over again. It started each log at the center of each city and spread out, like a spider web, to the center of each adjoining city, and then continued to the next adjoining cities. The process went on and on until the region each book covered was complete. I restructured the content to follow the most common routes used to travel from each U.S. border crossing, to the heart of Mexico City. All the books heading further south would pick up several routes from the “northern books” and lead to the border crossing with Central America. To do this, I immersed myself for several weeks in Mexico maps and of course the Sanborn’s guidebooks. Restructuring the content, reduced the number of page flips the reader had to do, since now you could follow the main routes from the front of the book to the center of the book in order. When you wanted to go from East to West, you could start from the center of the book to the back. I also eliminated many unnecessary entries and updated thousands of hotel and restaurant contact information.

My map design

The second major change I made that would greatly benefit the reader, was to add a column on the outer edge of each page that contains driving instructions. This column was used to highlight specific notes and memos, as well as leave empty space for the traveler to make his own notations. On the original book design, all the notes and memos were placed within the same body text as the driving instructions and only one page was left at the end of the book to write down personal notes. The real beauty of adding this column was that it did not add any more pages to the book, and it added a great useful feature to the guidebooks. Since I was redesigning everything else, I took the time to also redraw 20+ maps per book of various cities, routes and archeological sites, using Adobe Illustrator.

My inside cover design

Another change I implemented to the interior of each book was to utilize the inside cover. I used the inside cover to house conversion tables that would come in handy for U.S. drivers not familiar with Mexico’s metric units of measures, such as miles-to-kilometers and gallons-to­-liters. Doing this helped to reduce print cost and paper waste, as the original inside book covers were left blank and the conversion tables were provided to customers on separate printed cards.

To help entice the reader to travel more, I added several articles at the end of each book that would feature interesting vacation alternatives, such as eco-tourism in a cloud forest or whale watching off the coast of Baja California. Other helpful resources added to each book were common English-to-Spanish translations and a visual directory of common road signs in Mexico.

It took months to redesign each 200+ page book from top to bottom. The entire redesign process consisted of restructuring travel log segments, drawing maps, editing the entire book, and redesigning the layout and cover art.  I also poured through thousands of images and related travel articles to complete each book. Although I had constant feed back from Sanborn’s president and managers, most of the time it felt that I was a one man Editor/Art Director/Graphic Designer.

Thank you,

Pete C.

Brainwerx Design

If you liked this article you may also enjoy:
Travel Guidebook Redesign Case Study, part 1, Travel Guidebook Redesign Case Study, part 2,

Travel Guidebook Redesign Case Study, part 1

In 2004, I was given the task to do a complete redesign of the famous Sanborn's Travelog guidebooks. This redesign project would include covers, log entry structure and content layout. In this article, I will discuss the project’s problem areas, the research and the solutions I proposed. In my next article I will discuss, in more detail, my cover design and page layout.

Previous cover design

My cover design

Guidebook background:

The Sanborn’s Travelog is a famous series of six guidebooks that cover all of Mexico with incredibly detailed directions along with tidbits of history and humor. These mile-by-mile guidebooks take the traveler by the hand to his destination. Each book calculates mileage and offers suggestions for alternate routes, as well as lists customer approved hotels and restaurants.

The Problem:

The latest guidebook covers were designed in the early 1990s and had not been updated in any way. All covers had the same unattractive color combination, stale design and outdated logo. The only thing that distinguished one book cover from another, aside from the title, was a large map highlighting the books’ target region. The interior pages had little to no design elements, other than maps, which made the reading experience a bit bland. Also, the structure of the log entries were difficult to follow because they repeatedly jumped from the front of the book to the back, then to the front again.

The Research:

I spent several afternoons at bookstores watching anyone that approached the Travel section. I wrote down their gender and approximate age. At the end, I looked over each book and map that was picked up by, what appeared to be, seasoned travelers. Afterwards, I looked over other guidebooks that also grabbed my attention. I studied the front covers and noted images and color combinations. I also made many notes on features within the interior pages of all those books. To this I added several hours of online research, and at the end compiled all my notes and presented them to the president and managers of Sanborn’s Mexico Insurance.

The Solution:

The log entries would be restructured to follow known travel routes, where before they spread out from the center of each city. This would eliminate much of the traveler’s frustrations with repeatedly jumping from one end of the book to the other, than back again. Also, the interior pages would feature a side bar to clearly show where additional information would be featured and to also provide travelers with an area where they could jot down their own notes as they followed the routes, instead of flipping to the end of the book for a Notes section. The cover design would feature a large image showing a well-known destination, landmark or activity. I proposed that the cover background be a textured image that would represent the region each book was dedicated to. The map of the region would be moved to the back cover and made much smaller. It would show the routes that the individual book would follow. Each book would also contain plenty of extras, such as maps, featured articles, redesigned hotel and restaurant information, unit conversions and English-to-Spanish translations.

This guidebook redesign project took approximately one year to complete. In my next article I will go into more detail about my cover design and page layout.

Thank you,

Pete C.

Brainwerx Design

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