Case Study 5:
The Kroger Co.

The Kroger Co. is the largest supermarket chain in the United States by revenue, operating over 2,600 supermarkets, multi-department stores, fuel centers, and pharmacies across 34 states. At the time of this engagement, Kroger reported annual revenue exceeding $103 billion, ranking it as the country's second-largest general retailer and one of the top five largest retailers in the world. This is a company that operates at extraordinary scale, and its internal communications have to match.

Over a six-year period, I designed and produced the quarterly internal magazine, Great People, for Kroger's Michigan Division — A 40 to 45-page publication that served as the primary storytelling vehicle for the organization's people, programs, and milestones. This was sustained, high-volume editorial work where consistency, precision, and reliability were non-negotiable. Every quarter, on schedule, the publication had to be right.

The Kroger Great People Publication

This was a genuine editorial product, not a newsletter or a simple update sheet. Each 40 to 45-page issue covered the full breadth of what a large regional division generates quarter to quarter: Company news and strategic updates, new store openings, employee spotlights and staff features, service milestone recognitions, promotions, retirements, weddings, competitive achievements, charitable giving initiatives, and community events.

The content arrived in varied states of readiness. Some copy was polished and press-ready. Other material came in as rough notes, unretouched photography, or loosely organized information that needed editorial structure before it could become a page.

That editorial organization was handled by the copywriter, Valerie, and she was exceptional at it. Meticulous, thorough, and consistently reliable, she brought real discipline to the content side of the process. What made the collaboration work was that we had built a strong working relationship entirely remotely. We understood each other's process, communicated clearly, and trusted each other's judgment. That kind of creative partnership, where the writer and art director are genuinely in sync, is rare. It made the work faster, cleaner, and better.

Managing that variability across dozens of pages was a shared effort. Getting it to fit was mine. Kroger was specific: the target was 40 pages, with a five-page window of flexibility. When content volume pushed beyond that, it required formal approval from multiple stakeholders, including a check with the printer to confirm they could accommodate the change in scope and timeline. When the extra pages weren't approved, Valerie and her manager would go back through the content and make the editorial calls on what to cut. That was its own discipline, and it required the same care and precision she brought to everything else.

Within those constraints however, I had significant creative latitude. Layout, image placement, typography, color, diagonal compositions that moved across the full spread, image retouching and sizing. Preparing the images for the magazine presented its own type of challenge. As with numerous unretouched photos, they came in varied resolutions, image quality and lighting. Regardless, the work had to be colorful, legible, on time, and on budget. Within those parameters, I made it my own.

For a company of Kroger's size, this publication carried real organizational weight. It was a tool for internal culture, employee recognition, and divisional cohesion. The design had to support all of that while remaining clear, accessible, and visually engaging for an audience of frontline employees, managers, and leadership alike.

My Role

I led layout design and production for every issue across the six-year engagement. That included page design and typographic hierarchy, photo retouching, and image preparation, and close collaboration with the editor to structure and sequence content effectively before a single layout was built. I also designed supporting materials that extended from the publication relationship, including holiday card design for the company and pharmacy-related labels and supporting graphics.

This was a relationship built on trust and reliability. Kroger came back every quarter for six years because the work was consistent, the deadlines were met, and the quality didn't slip. That kind of long-term editorial partnership requires more than design skill. It requires professional dependability and a genuine understanding of what the client values in their communications.

The Approach

Good editorial design is largely invisible. When it's working, the reader moves through the content without thinking about the layout. The typography guides them. The image placement creates rhythm. The hierarchy tells them what matters and in what order. Nothing fights for attention. Everything serves the story.

For the Kroger publication, that meant building a consistent layout system that could accommodate widely varying content types, from full-page employee features to dense news columns to photo-heavy event spreads, without the publication losing its visual identity from section to section. Each issue had its own content mix, and the layout approach had to flex accordingly while the overall character of the publication remained stable.

Key elements of the approach included:

• Establishing consistent typographic systems and grid structures that created visual coherence across all 40-plus pages.
• Using spacing, scale, and hierarchy deliberately to make content-heavy pages readable rather than overwhelming.
• Retouching and color-correcting photography to a consistent standard, ensuring images supported rather than undermined the storytelling.
• Adapting layouts to the specific content demands of each issue without abandoning the established visual framework.
• Working closely with the editorial team from the content organization stage, not just at the design stage, to ensure structured, informed layout decisions, from the start.