The Magazine School 2010 Bringing outstanding writing, design and photography to the classroom The Western Magazine Awards Foundation

An annual awards program recognizing excellence in Western Canadian editorial work, and design. westernmagazineawards.ca TMS The Magazine School is a project of the Western Magazine Awards Foundation. It provides classroom material to writing and design instructors and professors. Western Magazine Awards Foundation

Best Art Direction – Article Danae Thompson Swerve magazine The 2010 Western Magazine Awards

 Danae Thompson, You’re Invited, Swerve  Robert Biron, Surf & the City, up! Magazine  Randall Watson, Glory Days, Vancouver Magazine  Randall Watson, Cookie Monsters, Western Living  Randall Watson, Designers of the Year, Western Living Finalists: Best Art Direction – Article

●“Swerve, Calgary inside and out. Resonant, relevant and relentlessly local.” ●Published by Postmedia Network ●Circulation: 110,000 in Friday’s Calgary Herald, plus 5,000 copies free distribution And the winner is…

Graduated fron Alberta College of Art and Design in 2006 with a Bachelor of Design degree. Landed the Swerve AD job that year.  “Shortly, after graduation the position of art director became available. I thought I had nothing to lose so I applied. After viewing my portfolio, Shelley Youngblut (Swerve editor) invited me for an interview. “At that same time, I was offered a job at Tag Advertising. Shelley encouraged me to take the job at Tag as it would better suit my level of experience (or lack thereof). “Four months later I received a call from Swerve asking if I was still interested. I left Tag to take it.” Art director Danae Thompson

“I always wanted to shoot a cultural wedding and a friend wrote me an saying that some friends of hers were getting married and they were doing a traditional Sikh wedding... and they were up for the idea of photographing. “I did this as a personal project.” – photographer Leah Hennel The story begins with the photographer

●Staff photographer for the Calgary Herald and Swerve ●Graduate of photography program at SAIT in Calgary  “I'd feel naked without a camera in my hand. I love photographing everything, but especially my son.” ●leahhennelphotography. blogspot.comleahhennelphotography. blogspot.com Photographer Leah Hennel

“I had to respect their culture, cover my hair and stuff like that, and [not] wear revealing clothing, obviously, but the couple was super open and I could pretty much do anything.” – Leah Hennel Respecting Sikh culture

“It was LONG. A traditional Sikh wedding is a week of events leading up to the wedding. The day of the wedding they start early in the morning and don’t finish until... late. You’re there 7 am until midnight.” – Leah Hennel One lengthy wedding

“I wanted to make sure that I captured all the small details: the henna on the bride’s hand, the bracelets they wear on their arms.” – Leah Hennel Attention to Detail

“I knew instantly that I wanted Leah Hennel’s photos to dominate the page. They were so bright and colourful and full of gorgeous, rich detail – I wanted them to sing.” – Danae Thompson The art director sees the photos

Danae Thompson begins the layout.  “The first step was to find the best image for the cover. I began placing every image I thought might work onto a cover template in InDesign. Through the process of elimination – and the votes of my co-workers – we decided on a close-up of the bride. It showcased the beautiful detail of this Sikh wedding perfectly.” The art director’s approach

“The second step was to organize the inside pages. I printed the photos off in colour and laid them out on the office floor like a puzzle. This way I could see how they all relate to each other and which photos should be grouped. I don’t always take this step, but for photo essays it is very helpful.” – Danae Thompson Organizing the inside pages

“Once the photos were selected, I placed them in the layout. I usually try to leave the photos full frame to the photographer’s original crop; luckily very little cropping was needed here.” – Danae Thompson Full-frame photos

The “perfect typeface to complement the piece” is chosen: Minion Pro.  “I chose it for its sharp serifs, which felt feminine and masculine at the same time and suited the decorative wedding motif.” – Danae Thompson Selecting the typeface

Minion Pro was also used to integrate layered captions over photos.  “I was inspired by the beautiful henna tattoos in the photographs and wanted to take a stab at it myself (mostly a selfish excuse to doodle). I researched different lines and patterns online and started to create my own henna.  “It made a nice third layer to the piece. It also solved the problem of how to layer in captions over the photos.” – Danae Thompson Creating a third layer

“The most enjoyable – and educational – part of this cover story for me was illustrating how to tie a turban. “When editor Shelley Youngblut suggested this as a sidebar I knew I wanted to take this on. I found a great video on YouTube and after a series of screen grabs, I was able to illustrate how it’s done.” – Danae Thompson Sidebar Illustration: How to tie a turban

“This cover story was one of my favourites to art direct. It’s easy when you are inspired by what you are given to work with.” – Danae Thompson Reflecting on the final result

“I was really happy with the layout and how they picked the photos. It’s different than shooting for a newspaper where they don’t have a lot of space to run the photos sometimes and they are always cropped. “I find when you do magazine work they respect how the photographer shot it and leave it at that.” – Leah Hennel The photographer’s final words

The Magazine School is a project of the Western Magazine Awards Foundation, which acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage toward project costs. The Magazine School content was prepared with the skilful assistance of Janice Paskey and students Sarah Kitteringham and Terence Yung of Mount Royal University, and with the generous co-operation of the winners of the 2010 Western Magazine Awards. Credits We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) of the Department of Canadian Heritage towards our project costs.