Founding president of Society of Graphic Designers (GDC) dies

John Gibson
It's been reported by DesignEdge Canada magazine that one of the founding members of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GCD), John Gibson, has died at the age of 83. Coming out of a typographic background, starting as an apprentice compositor in London, England, he became the first secretary of the Typographic Designers of Canada in 1956, after emigrating to Canada. After

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

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

QuarkXPress 9 being released in April

Should anyone be interested, QuarkXPress 9 is being released in April. It is being presented as the answer to design automation, allowing designers to publish directly to digital devices. Virtually every magazine publisher I meet says they have either switched to Adobe InDesign or are considering it. Any views about this? Add a comment.

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

A compressed and amusing view of how a magazine is made

Here, (thanks to the magCulture blog), is a happily frenetic video portrayal of how an issue of the British magazine Little White Lies is made."We wanted to make a short film that captured some of the love, care and hand-crafted passion that goes into the making of an issue of LWLies. We produce six issues each year, and for the two month period that we're working on a particular issue, we

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

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

AZURE magazine launches international design competition

AZURE, the contemporary design and architecture magazine, is marking its 25th anniversary year by launching an annual  international design competition. The AZ Awards will honour top-tier architecture firms and design studios that have produced outstanding work in the past year. The competition will be adjudicated by a panel of international jurors.AZURE is known for spotlighting innovation and

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

Bruce Mau and his team will rebrand OCAD

Bruce Mau Design has been given the assignment to re-brand OCAD University (formerly the Ontario College of Art & Design and even before that was simply the Ontario College of Art). OCAD and its design side is the seedbed for much of the art direction and design talent that drives and has driven Canadian magazines.According to a post on Design Edge Canada's website, Mau's firm was chosen to

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).

Making customized magazines

Interesting video showing how Wallpaper* magazine recently provided its readers with an opportunity to custom-design their covers, using a toolkit of icons, type and artwork. [thanks to Magculture]

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.  

Grafik, the UK graphic design magazine, ceases publishing

Grafik, the magazine for graphic design out of the UK, has stopped publishing. A brief note from the editorial team says that the publishers, Adventures in Publishing, have decided to liquidate the company and with it the high-end title. So hold onto your back issues.

What b2b magazines can learn from consumer magazines

Business-to-business publishers are taking a leaf out of consumer magazines playbooks by adopting some of the things that make their print publications into premium products, according to an article by Matt Kinsman in Folio:Kinsman points to the retaining of art director Robert Newman to help repackage and relaunch Reed Exhibition's JCK magazine. Newman is former design director of Real Simple,