Canada's History magazine undergoing a "refreshment" of design and presentation

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Canada's History magazine is undergoing a refreshment of its design which will be unveiled with its April-May issue, now at the printers. The magazine will be marking its 95th birthday this year.

While the redesign pretty much leaves the cover architecture and logo alone (so as not to jeopardize the gains the magazine has made on the newsstand), the inside pages and the front and back of the book have been substantially modified by the editorial team, looking to reflect the contemporary relevance of history. 

The visual redesign was handled in house by art director James Gillespie, working with consultant Karen Simpson. The new look includes new fonts and font sizes to improve readability. Editor-in-chief Mark Reid says of it

"Both the front and back of book sections have been streamlined. The Currents section is now more visually dynamic, and some regularly recurring items — such as "Brush Strokes" — have been re-imagined for a modern audience. Our former Reviews Section is now titled Books, and will feature not only book reviews but also interviews with authors, book excerpts and other items of interest to readers. 

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"The features section also received a makeover, and now employs a tasteful design that showcases — rather than competes with — the words, pictures and paintings. Layouts are cleaner thanks to the creative use of white space. 

"As many readers know, Canada's History used to be called The Beaver, and we have not forgotten our historic connection to that iconic publication, or the Hudson's Bay Company, which launched the magazine in 1920 as an internal newsletter. In Canada's History you will find many nods to our past; we’ve retained our Trading Post column that showcases fur trade-era artifacts; every feature article ends with a small beaver icon; and we’ve renamed the Letters page “The Packet,” as it was called back in 1920 when the magazine was launched.

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