Editorial - Graphic Monthly Canada

October 2007

Hot off the presses!

We want to reflect the sensibilities of printing: high tech, manufacturing and people

We are sporting a new look this month. Everyone needs a little sprucing up from time to time, and we felt the time was right to put our magazine through a bit of a makeover. Nothing too radical—just enough to update and modernize our look. Most notably you will find a new logo on the front cover, one that is graphically stronger and delivers a bigger punch than its previous incarnation when it lands on your desk. We have also revamped our font family, opting for a more modern, cleaner look. In general, we wanted a look that reflects the printing industry: a sensibility that mixes high-tech elements, manufacturing, people and high production values.

An undertaking like this is months in the making, and involves a huge investment of time from many people, not only the editorial and publishing staff that you’re likely to run into at industry functions, and whose faces you see in these pages, but also those who usually toil in the background to make sure that the magazine gets published on time and looks great.

Foremost among them is our art director, Jutta Thiel, whose graphic design acumen shapes Graphic Monthly Canada every issue. She shepherded the redesign through many iterations over several months, patiently listening to all our suggestions, focusing our attention on critical details, steering us back on course when we derailed, and gently dissuading us from our more outlandish design suggestions. Jutta put in many hours finessing the final design and the result is what you hold in your hand.

The relationship between an editor and an art director is not unlike a marriage—lots of bickering, lots of give and take, some frustrations and, if you’re lucky, lots of laughter and chemistry. If you enjoy reading Graphic Monthly Canada, at least half the credit goes to Jutta. She shapes our articles into appealing presentations, but like all good art directors she also has a keen sense of what readers want and is able to elicit from our writers and editors extra efforts when we think we can go no further. And she often does this under severe time constraints because editors don’t always have the respect for deadlines that they should.

Working closely with Jutta was Julie Jenkinson, creative director of BaumgartJenkinson, our Toronto-based external design consultant for the redesign. It was primarily Julie’s role to understand our vision for the magazine and interpret it into a working design. She did an outstanding job and we thank her.

And lastly we wish to acknowledge the assistance of the OMDC Magazine Fund, an initiative of the Ontario Media Development Corporation, for the Graphic Monthly Canada redesign project.

But, while our look has changed, our substance has not. We will continue to bring you the news and the in-depth stories we always have. We hope you enjoy the new and improved Graphic Monthly Canada.

Filomena Tamburri is the editor of Graphic Monthly Canada. She can be reached at ftamburri@graphicmonthly.ca