Portfolio

MagsBC

A brand and an online build for the Magazine Association of BC, and an ongoing partner for whatever new program comes next.

MagsBC represents magazine publishers across British Columbia, and the relationship started with Design Guidelines and an online build on WordPress and Elementor, hosted on Kinsta. What makes it worth telling is what happened after launch: MagsBC has kept coming back.

The relationship runs on day-rates rather than a single handoff. A focused day here for an accessibility pass, a focused day there for a new feature, each one scoped to something concrete rather than an open ended retainer. That is deliberate. The unit is the day, and the number depends on the work in front of it.

One of those focused days became the Non-Traditional Newsstands map, an interactive tool built as a React application in Lovable, using Leaflet for the mapping itself, then embedded directly into the existing MagsBC site. It is the clearest example of the pattern: MagsBC adds a new program, and the online experience grows to hold it.

Challenge

A guidelines and website engagement usually ends at launch. MagsBC’s needs did not stop there, because the organization keeps adding new programs and initiatives that need a place to live on the site, on a timeline that does not always match a full project cycle.

Accessibility was one clear example. It was not part of the original build, and it needed a focused pass rather than a full engagement, the kind of defined, scoped work a day-rate is built for rather than something that justifies reopening the whole project.

The Non-Traditional Newsstands program was another. It placed member magazines in locations readers would not expect to find them, and a list of addresses does not communicate that reach. The program needed something that made its footprint visible, without a separate project or a separate relationship to manage it.

MagsBC keeps adding programs, and each one plugs into the same foundation instead of becoming its own project.

Solution

The original engagement followed the same order as every build: Design Guidelines first, so every later decision had something settled to check against instead of being invented in parallel.

Structure, content, and interaction were mapped out before any of it went into WordPress. A sitemap set the organization’s full page structure, and wireframes worked out what belonged on each page and in what order, considered together rather than treated as separate layers added on after the fact. Only once that was settled did the online build begin, on WordPress and Elementor, hosted on Kinsta.

That sequence is what makes the ongoing relationship work. Accessibility was handled as a single focused day, addressing what needed fixing without reopening the whole project, the day-rate model working as intended: the scope is clear, the deliverable is concrete, and the day is enough.

The Non-Traditional Newsstands map used a different stack for a different job. It was planned separately as its own small structure, built as a standalone React application, using Leaflet to plot every location in the program, then embedded into the existing MagsBC site so visitors encounter it as part of the site they already know rather than a separate tool bolted on top.

Result

MagsBC’s online experience keeps growing without needing to be rebuilt, one focused day at a time. Accessibility, the newsstands map, and whatever comes next all attach to the same foundation set at the start.

The Non-Traditional Newsstands program is now visible at a glance, live at magsbc.com/non-traditional-newsstands, turning an internal program into something members can point to as proof of value.

The relationship itself is the result worth noting. MagsBC always adds programs, and each one becomes another day-rate engagement rather than another full project, which is what a foundation built to last is actually for.

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