New hand at the art tiller at Toronto Life with September issue

Though some might quarrel with definitions (the cover subjects moved to Dundas, Ontario, a town that probably can't be considered a suburb of Toronto). But the September issue of Toronto Life features the first cover design by new art director Christine Dewairy, late of Maclean's, Canadian Business etc.The issue is on stands August 11.Photographs by Hudson Hayden and photo illustration by James

Graffiti cover is parting shot for Toronto Life art director

Jessica Rose's final cover as art director of Toronto Life (she is moving to Britain) has a timely graffiti theme, what with the current mayor Rob Ford whitewashing wall art wherever he finds it. It illustrates the popular annual August Best of the City issue which will be on newsstands July 14.The cover lettering is by London-based artist/typographer Henrik Kubel/A2/SW/HK and the photograph was

Christine Dewairy leaves Maclean's to art direct Toronto Life

[This post has been updated) Christine Dewairy, who has been the triplequadruple-barrelled art director of Maclean's, Canadian Business ,Profit and Money Sense magazines at Rogers Publishing,  is moving to St. Joseph Media to become art director of Toronto Life. She replaces Jessica Rose, who resigned recently and is in the process of moving to England. Dewairy started her career a decade ago at

Toronto Life art director Jessica Rose leaving the magazine after three years and a redesign

Jessica Rose, the Toronto Life art director who redesigned the magazine during her three years there, is moving on. According to a posting on Mastheadonline, she is leaving the magazine in June and moving to England. Rose was a surprise pick when she joined TL, mostly because she was an outsider with little magazine design experience. She said her makeover of the magazine which was launched last

Many designers freelance on the side: survey

There's a good deal of moonlighting going on in the art and design sector, according to a new study of national salaries and billing practices in graphic design. On average, 48% of designers who are not full time freelancers work in addition to their regular job, averaging 7 hours of outside work a week. The median part-time income for freelance work in 2009 was $9,200.The 2010/2011 salary survey

Conceiving a concept cover at Halifax magazine

Sometimes, magazines take for granted that their readers know what goes on behind the curtain. So it's always interesting to see a magazine letting the readers in on how, for instance, it conceives its covers -- the most obvious, visible example of the creative magazine process.Halifax magazine has published on its blog a look in on the process that resulted in an unusual, illustrated cover for

Think positive; think honeysuckle: the colour of the year for 2011

The Pantone Colour Institute has unveiled the 2011 colour of the year and it is...honeysuckle. (Which I always thought was yellow. But apparently not.) "While the 2010 color of the year, PANTONE 15-5519 Turquoise, served as an escape for many," says the Pantone release, "Honeysuckle emboldens us to face everyday troubles with verve and vigor. A dynamic reddish pink, Honeysuckle is encouraging

"Unpublished" Grafik last issue heralds the magazine's revival in 2011

Some months ago we reported on the lamentable closure of Grafik magazine. Since then there has been planned a revival of the high end graphic design title by its original editorial team, but under new ownership. Well now the "unpublished" last issue of Grafik (ready to go in June 2010 when the abrupt closure was announced) has been posted online as a pdf and it is the precursor to a relaunched

Golden opportunity with C magazine launch of its "Money" issue

C Magazine launches its “Money” issue on Wednesday in Toronto with an issue containing an artist project by Abbas Akhavan called what is above is as that which is below…. He  has hand-inserted a sheet of imitation gold leaf in the centrefold of each of 2,200 copies of the magazine and there are 25 special limited edition magazines with real gold leaf, signed and numbered by the artist. They sell

Getty Images offers new Eurostyle fashion and lifestyle line of syndicated photography

Getty Images, the photo agency that specializes in celebrity portraits through its Contour by Getty Images, has now launched Contour Style, which provides high-end fashion, travel, interiors and lifestyle imagery to art directors and publishers. It has an exclusive distribution agreement with  Figaro Photos – Le Figaro, Le Figaro Madame and Le Figaro Magazine.

Pantone handheld device lets designers capture any colour from any surface

Pantone, the acknowledged authority on colour, is offering graphic designers a new, compact, handheld device, that for only US$649 allows users to match colours from any surface, material or fabric, including open-weave textiles and small patterned colours. According to a  release and a story in DesignEdge Canada, CAPSURE™ comes loaded with all of Pantone colour libraries, which includes more

Resurgent Global Brief magazine distinguished by using top rank illustrators

It's a pleasure to see a magazine using some of the best and top-rank illustrators, as is the case in the just published issue 5 of Global Brief. Readers will recall that the magazine ran into a spot of bother (almost strangled at birth), but is now apparently on a solid footing and at home at Glendon College at York University. The art director for the magazine is Louis Fishauf Design; Fishauf

Nice work when you can get it: Seth talks about creating The Walrus summer reading cover

An interesting interview between Walrus art director Brian Morgan and cartoonist Seth about the process they went through to come up with the cover(s) for the magazine's summer reading issue...and other stuff, including Seth's creative influences and working methods. For magaziners, it's irresistible. 

The cover above (one of two that readers were asked to select from) was eventually

East Coast Living shows off the redesign it won in a national competition

Regular readers will recall that East Coast Living magazine won the competition to receive a free makeover from K9 Designs in Toronto. The results of that at least the cover makeover are in. Above is the cover before and after (its forthcoming winter issue). ECL also won some strategic direction and redesign on interior layouts from K9 Design (to be unveiled in November), circulation consultation

Going to the dogs a perennial favourite on magazine covers

Grids, Robert Newman's design website, has an amusing take on magazines' penchant for putting pictures of dogs on their covers. There is a collection of 20 dog covers available.(The one above was from Time issue of August 16).

Time magazine retired art director picks 15 favourite covers from 15 years

We know there are many readers of this blog who admire the work of clever art directors as much as we do. That's why we know those readers will find this feature from Grids, highlighting the work of Arthur Hochstein. He was art director of Time magazine for 15 years (1994 to 2009) and he selects 15 of his favourite covers. As the introduction by Robert Newman points outHochstein's Time covers

Imitation is the sincerest form of cover design, apparently

A good-time browse can be had at theblog Doppelgänger Design where illustrator Brian Taylor posts uncannily (and sometimes suspiciously) similar cover designs and where you can see how a good idea (as above, Cheap Eats) can proliferate.There are even examples of where magazines imitate themselves, as in this Rolling Stone clone of a "Friends" cover by a "Glee" cover.  

Will it be the law to disclose that a magazine has airbrushed its cover model?

We won't hold our breath about seeing it in Canada or the States, but there is an interesting proposal in Australia that would require magazines to carry disclaimers about their fashion photos being airbrushed and Photshopped. (This is not the first country to consider it.) According to a story in Marie Claire's U.K. website, the Australian government unveiled a new strategy to deal with women's

Scratch and...meh

Magculture points out that if you're going to do something dramatic, as with the current issue of UK Wired magazine that has areas blanked out by grey scratch-off bars like you find on lottery tickets, you should be sure to have a payoff for the readers. In this case, the results are somewhat prosaic, and the opportunity missed.

Something to aspire to: George Lois's '60s Esquire covers

Last week New York magazine published a story and a slideshow that featured iconic art director George Lois talking about his 12 favourite Esquire covers and how they came to be. It is well worth a view and something to aspire to in terms of creative juice, guts, luck and the patronage of an editor who knew good stuff when he saw it. This was in spite of the hell it was going to raise (in fact,