Conceiving a concept cover at Halifax magazine

Sometimes, magazines take for granted that their readers know what goes on behind the curtain. So it's always interesting to see a magazine letting the readers in on how, for instance, it conceives its covers -- the most obvious, visible example of the creative magazine process.

Halifax magazine has published on its blog a look in on the process that resulted in an unusual, illustrated cover for their January/February issue. Editor Trevor Adams explains how he and designer Jay Hiltz collaborated to illustrate the Canada Games cover story. They called on Hiltz's former art and design school classmate , illustrator Virve Aljas of Toronto.

Virve roughed up several early concepts, working around prominent Halifax icons like the Old Town Clock, and vibrant imagery of athletes in action. “The pop of bright colours combined with the diversity of images is really different for us,” Jay says. “No other glossy magazine in Atlantic Canada is doing covers like this.”