Fresh look for Albany’s Visitor Guide
By David H. Waller
When we moved our printing to Midway Press in Dallas, it opened up an exciting opportunity to refresh Albany’s visitor guide and take advantage of improved printing options.
In years past, the guide was square-shaped, printed on newspaper stock, and unbound.
With the new printer and some room to create, we’ve taken a big leap forward. The new guide looks and feels like a magazine, with glossy pages, a clean layout, and a more modern size. It’s something I hope folks will want to hold onto.
With my background in graphic design, I wanted this to make a splash. I spent two years working in Abilene at the Convention and Visitors Bureau, and that experience played a big role in shaping this project. My former boss, Robert Lopez, and I started there at the same time. He came to Abilene with a vision to rebrand the CVB and bring new energy to the city’s marketing—and he gave me the freedom to run with it. Together, we built an entirely new look for Abilene, including a revamped visitor guide, and through that process, Robert helped me grow creatively in ways I didn’t expect.
I give Robert a lot of credit for where I am today. Without even knowing it, he was preparing me to eventually step out on my own with Western Trail Media—and more importantly, to take on The Albany News. In many ways, I see the newspaper less as a news project and more as a design project that tells the story of a community.
That Abilene experience brought a real spark to this Albany project. I built the entire guide from the ground up—photography, stories, layout, business listings, and advertisements. While many of the advertisers are familiar faces, about 95% of the ad designs are brand new. I’m incredibly grateful to the local businesses who supported this project by trusting me with a fresh look for their ads. Without their support, a guide like this simply wouldn’t be possible.
I hope you enjoy the new guide. You’ll find a copy tucked inside this week’s edition of The Albany News, and you’ll also start seeing them around town—in shops, offices, and visitor spots. We’ll be sending them to nearby communities as well, so travelers passing through can get a sense of what makes Albany worth visiting.
If you’d like to advertise in the next visitor guide edition—which we plan to release in the spring—reach out to us at advertise@thealbanynews.net. And if we made any mistakes or left someone out, please don’t hesitate to let us know. I hope as you flip through the pages, you’re reminded—like I was—of how special this little town we call home truly is.
