A Season of Transformation, Renewal & Growth

One thing that strikes me about the holiday season each year is that it represents at the same time the forces of both tradition and of transformation.

We recall holiday times and memories of the past and celebrate them, revelling in the sense of continuity that traditions provide. The gatherings of friends and family, the Christmas and Hanukkah meals, the decorations and gift-giving, the annual toasts, greetings and blessings—all are part of a deep-felt need to return to the familiar, the comfortable and the proven. Indeed, few things have deeper roots in the human spirit and its hopes for the future than the various manifestations of a “Feast of Lights” that appears in virtually every human culture at the time of the winter solstice.

Even as we reflect on the year and times past, we inevitably turn to our values and aspirations, to our successes and failures, and to our past vows to do and be better. The tradition of self-review, of re-commitment to goals and self-improvement at the beginning of a new year and solar cycle, is also one of the archetypes of the human experience.

As a motivational speaker I know is fond of saying, “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” Food for thought at a thoughtful time of the year.

Tradition and transformation have been on my mind for other reasons as well, lately.

On the transformation side, most of our readers will notice that Food Management feels considerably different this month. Our new look is the result of a major redesign of the magazine that we embarked on last summer. It reflects a complete, ground-up re-thinking of everything from our typography to our page layouts, editorial calendar and departmental structures.

Design changes on this scale take a lot more work than most people imagine, and great thanks must go to Chris Roberto, Food Management’s art director, for the fine execution that you will find in our pages. Our editorial and production staff—Mike Buzalka, Tara Fitzpatrick and Denise Walde—put in long hours to help make his vision a reality on the content and production side. Thanks also go to our general manager, David Brodowski, and our group publisher, Randall Friedman, for their support is providing the resources to make this redesign possible.

We think you’ll find the look and feel of the magazine to be much improved and to offer a significantly better reading and browsing experience. Among other changes, you’ll find larger pages, giving us more “elbow room” to showcase our content mix. The design permits more effective use of white space, a new, unified color palette and a more contemporary approach to article presentation.

Our cover sports a new logo and our approach to typography, headlines, body copy and photography in the pages of the magazine will make it more readable and entertaining.

Other changes are evolutionary. For some time we have been looking to do a better job of linking our print product to our digital content initiatives and the new design will help us improve in that regard as well. As you page through the issue, keep an eye out for our “digital asterisk,” the way we will often highlight links to online content that provides more depth and breadth to what you find on the printed page.

What hasn’t changed is Food Management’s longstanding commitment to keeping our readers informed about the trends, forces and innovations that drive the world of onsite foodservice. Our new tagline, Intel for Onsite, sums this up succinctly.

In coming months, we look forward to hearing what you think of the new Food Management.