Canadian Magazine Industry News
12 September 2012,     TORONTO
U of T magazine honoured in design competition
The winning cover (click image to enlarge)
The winning cover
TORONTO—A Toronto design studio's work for a University of Toronto magazine prevailed in a post-secondary publication competition against prominent academic titles from across North America.

Fresh Art & Design in Toronto won two awards recently (best cover and best tabloid) from the U.S.-based University and College Designers Association (UCDA) annual competition for its front-to-back design work on the U of T research and innovation magazine, EDGE.

The cover that caught the eye of the judges was for the fall 2011 The Healthy Aging Issue, depicting a woman looking youthful on one side and aged on the other.

"We worked quite a bit on this, to get the imagery to work right," said art director Dean Mitchell. "It's actually two stock images of women, retouched to look like one face." It was difficult to find images with similar lighting and at the correct angle to work together properly, he said. Retouching and design was done by Kyle Schruder.

Mitchell said he hasn't seen the judges comments, but offered, "I think it's the concept and the execution, the combination of the two that put it over the top for us." The best tabloid award was for the same issue, he added.

Inside spread from the winning magazine
Inside spread from the winning magazine (click image to enlarge)

Fresh Art has designed Edge (a twice-a-year publication) for five years, but this is just the second time it has entered the competition. The studio has been invited to a conference coming up in Montreal where awards will be presented.

The UCDA said the judges of the 42nd annual competition evaluated more than 1,100 print and digital media entries, handing out 163 awards.
— Jeff Hayward
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Wow, Torstar really seems to be on a mission to bankrupt one magazine after another....
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Full of terrific information, Thanks!...
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