Canexel
Editorial Policy

Premise

Canexel is a construction company facing a problem shared by many firms in the industry: its services and products are excellent, but a conventional catalog doesn't do justice to what they build. It doesn't tell the story. It doesn't spark interest. It doesn't connect.

It was his collaborator, photographer Nacho Rivera, who suggested taking it a step further. Instead of a catalog, a magazine. A publication in its own right, featuring photos and text that together would convey something that product listings simply cannot.

The challenge: building a publication from scratch

La Deriva joined the project before a single line had been written. The assignment wasn't just to write—it was to help define what kind of publication they wanted to create, based on what criteria, with what voice, and with what structure.

That’s the kind of work we’re most interested in: the kind that begins before the words.

The process

We began with a strategic analysis to understand what Canexel wanted to communicate, to whom, and in what tone. From there, we developed a style guide and a tone-of-voice document that served as a reference for all subsequent content, both our own and that of other contributors.

We created a style guide that ensured consistency across the publication’s various formats—articles, interviews, and captions—and provided ongoing editorial guidance throughout the content production process.

At the same time, we wrote articles and interviews, edited the rest of the team’s work, and assisted Nacho Rivera with the magazine’s creative direction, offering editorial guidance on decisions that affected the relationship between images and text.

The result

A magazine-catalog with its own unique identity, currently in the design phase, which, once published, will be a communication tool that goes far beyond what Canexel had originally envisioned.

Project in progress.