Program Guides with Panache

Maryland Public Television

We’re helping Marylanders (and beyond) watch their favorite shows and discover new ones.

Sixteen awards and counting. ‘Nuff said.

Maryland Public Television (MPT) comprises four stations, broadcast throughout Maryland and Washington, DC, as well as parts of surrounding states. Distributed monthly, MPT’s program guide provides members and partners with schedules for its channels and informs them of area events.

Sixteen awards and counting. ‘Nuff said.

MPT sought to update their program guides to better engage and inform members. Novak Birch was tasked with designing, writing, editing, and producing engaging program guides that support MPT’s mission to educate and entertain the public with high-quality programs and services.

Sixteen awards and counting. ‘Nuff said.

While adhering to MPT and PBS brand guidelines, we redesigned the program guide to give it a fresh, modern look-and-feel. To enhance readability, we eliminated heavy background colors and large blocks of text. The new guide incorporates more white space yet includes the same key content—making it easy for readers to find information they’re looking for and to discover new programs of interest. For example:

  • The channel grids provide an at-a-glance overview of each day’s primetime line-up, while the listings provide more detailed information.
  • At the top of each channel grid, “grid picks” offer teasers about programs to engage readers.
  • Each guide’s cover and feature page highlight one program or initiative, enticing readers to learn about the program and to explore the guide.

Since 2012, we’ve worked with MPT to design and write the monthly program guide. Working with our printer/mailhouse partner, we also manage the printing and mailing to more than 53,000 households across the region each month.

Sixteen awards and counting. ‘Nuff said.

Awards

MPT’s program guide has won 16 creative awards during our tenure:

  • GD USA: American Graphic Design Awards
    • 2019: Brochures & Collateral (2)
  • International Academy of Visual Arts: Communicator Awards
    • 2019: Gold Award of Excellence (1) & Silver Award of Distinction (1)
    • 2017: Silver Awards of Distinction (1)
    • 2015: Silver Awards of Distinction (3)
    • 2014: Gold Award of Excellence (1) & Silver Awards of Distinction (2)
    • 2013: Gold Awards of Excellence (3) & Silver Awards of Distinction (2)
  • PromaxBDA: Local Awards
    • 2013: Silver (1), Off Air Design

Cost Savings

We have helped MPT save money by changing paper and by making proactive design changes to incorporate new channel grids without adding pages.

Want to get in sync?

Drop us a line

Novak Birch

Important Notice

Microsoft has officially depreciated Internet Explorer versions 9 and lower.

In order to keep our website lean and free of code that merely hacks unsupported versions of Internet Explorer, we are no longer supporting IE 9 and lower. We believe in pushing web technology forward and so should you!

Download a better browser ›