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Archive for November 25th, 2010
It’s that time of year when we start to see a lot “top 5″ and “top 10″ lists. You know, the top 10 best bikini bodies of 2010. [ Except, this is a place for me to reflect on design, so we'll skip the celebrity smut, shall we? ] Quill and Quire recently announced its top five Canadian book covers, and they are a great bunch.
Design credits, left to right: Goya’s Dog (David Gee); Fauna (Jennifer Lum); Kenk (Nick Marinkovich, Alex Jansen & Jason Gilmore); Cigar Box Banjo (Heather Pringle); Seven Good Reasons not to be Good (David Gee)
My personal favourite is Heather Pringle’s design for Cigar Box Banjo. I love how rich it feels, and the dimension the design gives to the cover, and the joy it seems to express. I am also struck by the similarity of the cover designs for Cigar Box Banjo and Seven Good Reasons not to be Good. Both use movement and direction to jump the eye around the cover… but with completely different (really, almost opposite) design aesthetics. And yet my first thought when seeing them was “wow, they’re so similar!”
Anyway, nice work! You can read more about each selection on Quill & Quire’s website.
Spirit of the North-Fall 2010 edition-is hot off the presses. This issue was a lot of fun to put together.
Our cover story? Why, the Grey Cup, of course! (For non-Canadian readers, the Grey Cup is the Canadian Football League Championship.)
We featured another gorgeous illustration from the very talented Ian Johnson:
There is a profile of Vancouver artist Suzo Hickey:
Our editor takes us in search of the elusive Whooping Crane:
This issue’s photo gallery features stunning images of the Canadian Prairies. These two by Robert Postma are my personal favourites:
And we get up close and personal with the Koalas of Australia’s French Island:
As you can see, lots of good stuff! Look for a copy on a news stand near you, or visit Spirit of the North’s website for more info.