Flush left, strong image wins over readers to Toronto Life cover

The vote is in and the readers of Toronto Life have chosen the April cover that was the simplest, with a strong central image. (The winner is above, the runners up, below.) The online survey, in which readers were given three choices for the "Best New Restaurants" issue. The St. Joseph Media research department sent the three cover choices to the database of subscribers to the magazine's e-letters and tallied the results.

Vice-president of research Clarence Poirier says that research does not replace the creative process, but was designed to simply ensure success in a very competitive marketplace. “We could have simply asked respondents which cover they liked best and been done with it. However, we tested each cover in isolation and compared it other issues of Toronto Life to ensure that the best option was, in fact, the one that would motivate people to grab it off the shelves,” explains Poirier.

The majority of respondents indicated that the simplicity of the cover won them over. “It really comes down to basic principles. The brain is trained to process information in a certain way,” Poirier notes. “A strong image supported by cover lines that are left-justified and flow down in columns may be traditional, but it works.”

As the company's release said, however, the real test begins when Toronto Life hits newsstands on March 8.