Strong showing by Toronto Life
The whole is greater than the sum of parts when it comes to the new Toronto Life. Despite the quibble about the logo (see below), looking at the entire April issue is a real pleasure.
Carol Moskot has always shown commendable restraint and an elegant sensibility in typography. This is clearly so here with the two typefaces used, Farnham for the body and some display and Grange for other display. But there's so much more.
There are distinct whiffs of the resurgent New York magazine, which is only to be expected. The architecture of the magazine has not been changed, so much as some of the furniture of the magazine has been regrouped. And it works very well. The departments are strong, such as This City, This Month, Restaurants and so on. The column treatments (for instance Politics) ditto. Moving the listings to the back is so sensible it's a wonder it wasn't done sooner.
The feature treatments are a subtle change from what went before, but the new typography makes them snappier; for instance the Gerald Hannon feature on Eddie Greenspon. The photo feature on St. Michael's Hospital emergency room is an examplar of the way white space has been judiciously used in the new design.
Particularly interesting is the larger, single photos on shorter pieces like the Pop Culture column on Mike Holmes.
Sorry to see the demise of the "newsphoto" approach to the contents page, but it's a price worth paying for this solid redesign of one of Canada's most important magazines.
Carol Moskot has always shown commendable restraint and an elegant sensibility in typography. This is clearly so here with the two typefaces used, Farnham for the body and some display and Grange for other display. But there's so much more.
There are distinct whiffs of the resurgent New York magazine, which is only to be expected. The architecture of the magazine has not been changed, so much as some of the furniture of the magazine has been regrouped. And it works very well. The departments are strong, such as This City, This Month, Restaurants and so on. The column treatments (for instance Politics) ditto. Moving the listings to the back is so sensible it's a wonder it wasn't done sooner.
The feature treatments are a subtle change from what went before, but the new typography makes them snappier; for instance the Gerald Hannon feature on Eddie Greenspon. The photo feature on St. Michael's Hospital emergency room is an examplar of the way white space has been judiciously used in the new design.
Particularly interesting is the larger, single photos on shorter pieces like the Pop Culture column on Mike Holmes.
Sorry to see the demise of the "newsphoto" approach to the contents page, but it's a price worth paying for this solid redesign of one of Canada's most important magazines.
posted by D. B. Scott at
4:11 pm
1 Comments:
It is a smashing redesign. I too was sorry to see the newsphoto go from the contents page - a brilliant innovation for a city mag in the early 90s.
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