Project Description
WINNER:
- CASE District Awards (Cover Design, Spring 2018 UCalgary Alumni Magazine) Silver, 2018
An extremely impactful main editorial feature focused on mental health issues and research demanded a smart, respectful visual creative solution. The rest of the mag looks nice too, but this case study is primarily about the main editorial feature and the cover.
After reading the written articles, I developed the concept of “We all have baggage” which I tweaked into the phrase, “The things we carry”. This phrase, along with the visuals of each interviewee carrying a relevant form of baggage (ie. suitcase, backpack, gym bag, etc.) delivers a positive message that everyone is affected by the stigma of mental health. The inspiring written phrases on each person’s bag are direct quotes that each person (interviewed and photographed) allowed us to use. We added this touch of positivity to each person’s story because, even though they will carry the issue with them for the rest of their lives, they have also made the decision to be positive about how they deal with it.
Great photography based upon my initial layout comps made it through from pitch to final print. My main challenge was figuring out how to present weighty issues such as sexual assault, suicide and depression without appearing sad or hopeless. I also managed to keep the editorial design more-or-less “on-brand” with the colour and typography choices.
This issue won four North American CASE awards in 2018, as follows:
Print General Interest: Gold. | Cover design: Silver. | Photo series, Mental Health Matters: Silver. | Illustration series, Derring-Do: Silver.
After the mag went to press, I started preparing and populating the content and images into our responsive website magazine. It’s built upon a WP template with some additional custom CSS styling.
Here’s the pdf link to the magazine →
As an added bonus, here’s a quick bts video on how the cover came together.
