Creative Direction

Willamette Magazine, Spring 2024

The Spring 2024 edition of Willamette magazine tackles big topics — the intersections of forest management and climate change, AI and data science, sustenance fishing and industry, just to name a few — and showcases how the Willamette community is addressing these issues both within their region and in the wider world. The university’s alumni comprise a smart, educated, caring community representing a wide range of ages, backgrounds, and interests. So the team set out to create a sophisticated yet vibrant publication that engages and instills a sense of sense of achievement in its audience – a magazine you’d be proud to display on your coffee table.

We incorporated many of our favourite elements from consumer magazines, including world-class photography, unique illustrations, and contemporary typography. From Clayton Cotterell’s photograph of Andrews Forest wrapping around the cover to George Wylesol’s surreal illustrations sprinkled throughout the fiction piece, the magazine is an immersive treat that is as original, modern, and impactful as the university itself.

 
The new magazine is truly amazing. To everyone involved, you did great work! I loved the professor, student, and alumni highlights, and the way those individuals’ stories were woven into larger narratives. It brought home what Willamette’s motto and mission look like in practice.
— Janelle Bovell, Willamette Alumni
 
 
 

CLIENT: Willamette University


EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Emily Boutilier


CONTRIBUTORS: Franziska Barczyk, Hannah Browne, Clayton Cotterell, christine dong, Grace J. Kim, Timo Lenzen, Celeste Noche, NashCo, George Wylesol

Toronto Met University Mag 2024

The winter 2024 issue of Toronto Metropolitan University Magazine includes articles on AI in the workplace, mindfulness for caregivers, a TMU prof and alum’s illustrious career in the fashion industry, the University’s new mascot, and much more.

Our cover story explores ways we can communicate about science in the age of misinformation, and how to discern fact from fiction.

client: Toronto Metropolitan University
Editor-in-chief: colleen mellor
contributors: hannah browne, leeandra cianci, wade hudson, alexa mazzarello, ebti nabag, dadu shin

Canadian Business Redesign

Founded in 1928, CB is a valued destination for business journalism, profiling and connecting innovators who are changing Canada for the better. We were tasked with rethinking every aspect of the magazine to reflect a more modern approach to business—one that is more diverse, less stuffy and a lot more fun.

The full print and digital redesign includes a fresh new logo, bold typography and engaging photography and illustrations. Colour is used minimally to allow the visuals to stand out. Text columns shift to create dynamic compositions that flow from one page to the next, creating a cohesive yet surprising package.

The website captures the magazine’s exciting new direction in a modern and user-friendly web experience. The homepage features a bold modular grid of interchangeable cards that capture the innovative energy of the mag. The article pages are structured in a flexible way to accommodate both long reads and shorter stories.

“I’m immensely proud of our success in partnering our editors at Canadian Business with the talent at Studio Wyse. The new CB exceeds my expectations in every way. It’s stunning and draws you in immediately. The cover is bold without being overwrought. There’s a great mix of visual storytelling. The illustrations are lively and the photography is beautiful. Together, we’ve produced just about the best magazine that SJC Media has ever published.”

—Ken Hunt, President and Publisher of SJC Media

Congratulations, you made it to the bottom! You deserve a prize so here are some fun outtakes and behind-the-scenes.

CLIENT: St joseph’s communications Editor-in-Chief: Charlotte Herrold
Contributors: Miguel Arenillas, Kyle Ellingson, David Sparshott, May truong, Timo Lenzen, Hanna-Katrina Jędrosz, Kate Ince, Nicole Billark, Yannis Davy Guibinga, Ian Patterson, Jordan Andrew Carter, Jessica Chou, Jennifer Roberts, Steph Martyniuk, Jason Franson, Kathleen Fu, Alia Youssef
Website Development: SIX-O-SIX

Communal Lunch Project

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The Communal Lunch Project is a Canada-wide resource that addresses food insecurity and social isolation by bringing post-secondary students together for a meal. We teamed up with George Brown College, Meal Exchange and Chef Joshna Maharaj to establish CLP’s brand and design their website, which offers recipes, videos, quick tips and virtual lunches.

We used bright illustration and a welcoming colour palette to convey the warmth of good food and the fun of gathering around an inviting lunch table. Check out @communallunch to see what they’ve been up to!

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“It was a pleasure working with the SW team! They did much more than build a website – they challenged us to articulate the intentions of a website that had to respond to a sudden pivot from an in-person research project to a virtual project. The website they created is now the lifeblood of our project. They made this pivot possible because they ask great questions and listen, they are creative and patient, and they are fun – they made our very steep learning curve enjoyable! We highly recommend them.”

Jennifer Mitsche, Project Director, Communal Lunch Project, Professor, Department of English & Communications, George Brown College, NSERC-funded Researcher

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Ryerson University Magazine, 2021

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The Winter 2021 issue of Ryerson University Magazine focuses on “change makers” who are taking action to address inequality. It includes a stunning series of portraits by photographer Janick Laurent, who captured the fun and dynamic personalities of the subjects, many of them students from the inaugural class of Ryerson’s new law school.

This year also required a lot of adapting to change with the COVID-19 pandemic. We had Image Arts ’11 graduate Kiana Hayeri document what life has been like on campus for students who have quickly adjusted to mostly virtual learning.

The Summer 2021 issue of Ryerson University Magazine focuses on things we learned during the pandemic - from the urgency of addressing socio-economic inequities, to how businesses can pivot, to how often to wash our hands. We wanted to give serious issues the attention they deserve while bringing in some levity - after all, isn’t a little fun what’s gotten us through this tough time? Enter Ty Dale, whose bright, pleasing illustrations on the cover and throughout the 14-page feature are the silver-lining sparkle we needed.

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We bring in a diverse group of photographers and illustrators for each issue – from internationally acclaimed artists to up-and-coming Ryerson grads. Here are some of the amazing people we've worked with to bring Ryerson's stories to life:

(ALL ISSUES) EDITOR, COLLEEN MELLOR. COVER STORY PHOTOGRAPHY, JANNICK LAURENT. ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS, ALIA YOUSSEF, CARLOS OSARIO, KIANA HAYERI, NADRA BADR, Wynne Neilly, Vanessa Tignanelli, Jeff Bierk, Chris Donovan, Reynard Li, Aidan Tooth, ILLUSTRATION, MIMI MOFFIE, YAZMIN BUTCHER, TY Dale

Xtra Magazine

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Xtra is an online magazine and community platform covering LGBTQ2S culture, politics and health that launched in 1984 as a local, free lesbian and gay newspaper in Toronto. Inspired by its activist past and back issues of its printed history, we developed a look that was loud & proud and reflective of the communities it represents.

The website and brand redesign is fresh and modern with lots of playful elements. At the core of Xtra’s new look is the asterisk — a symbol normally used to indicate an omission or a footnote. By reclaiming the power of the asterisk, Xtra says, “We will not be left out or pushed to the bottom of the page — our stories matter.”

As part of the editorial strategy moving forward, we developed an extensive visual playbook that provides an overview of how to use the new look. The book illustrates different story types with direction for artwork that pairs with content to strike the right tone, from loud and playful at times to serious and reserved.

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Studio Wyse took us down dozens of wonderful rabbit holes in their research—including a fascinating discussion about whether fonts have genders—and dug deeply into our activist, DIY past for design inspiration. They made mood boards of the covers of back issues of The Body Politic and Xtra, pictures of our old hot pink newspaper boxes, 1980s AIDS activism posters and 1990s queer zines. They introduced us to the work of some fabulous LGBTQ2S+ photographers and illustrators, with an emphasis on the work of racialized artists, to support our vision of showcasing more images of members of our communities throughout our site. The resulting look is modern, elegant and easy to navigate, but with lots of playful elements and surprises.

rachel giese, editorial director, xtra magazine

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Motion graphic animation by Julian Brown, On the Chase

University of Toronto Magazine, Winter 2020

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The University of Toronto Magazine recently expanded its coverage to include the Scarborough and Mississauga campuses. To mark the occasion, we developed a fresh new logo and cover design for the Winter 2020 issue and introduced a new opening section featuring three big, beautiful double-page spreads capturing “A Moment” from each campus.

The issue is jam-packed with incredible work, including the cover and cover feature illustrations about the future of medicine by Gastón Mendieta and absolutely stunning portraits for a piece about efforts against anti-Black racism by Jorian Charlton.

Other great contributors to this issue include Christopher Katsarov Luna, Kevin Van Paassen, Galit Rodan, Nick Iwanyshyn, Jamie Cullen, Christopher Philpot, Owen Gent and David Sparshott.

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(ALL ISSUES) EDITOR-IN-CHIEFSCOTT ANDERSON. (THIS ISSUE) CAMPUS EDITOR, PATRICIA LONERGAN. CAMPUS EDITOR, DON CAMPBELL. PHOTO EDITOR, DELLA ROLLINS. PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS, JoRIAN CHARLTON, CHRISTOPHER KARSAROVLUNA, KEVIN VAN PAASSEN, GALIT RODAN and NICK iwanyshyn. ILLUSTRATion, GASTÓN MENDIETA, JAMIE CULLEN, CHRISTOPHER PHILPOT, OWEN GENT, and DAVID SPARSHOTT.

Creative Destruction Lab, Year-In-Review 2020

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The Creative Destruction Lab is a seed-stage program for massively scalable, science-based companies, run out of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. For three years in a row, we helped them compile their Year-In-Review book, which was sent out to all volunteers, participants and delegates at their annual Super Session event which had moved online for 2020.

CDL continues to grow exponentially, expanding into Oxford, Paris and Atlanta and launching the Recovery Program, which aims to accelerate the world’s recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. This year’s book sought to summarize their extensive work while telling more of CDL’s stories and trying to capture the essential ingredient to their success: a top-notch community of academics, scientists, entrepreneurs and students. 

We used macro and micro photographs to frame abstract concepts (like quantum mechanics), used their signature pink as a highlighting element throughout the book, included lots of photos from their IRL events and highlighted Slack messages from their highly active virtual community. 

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“It is always such a pleasure to work with the Studio Wyse team on our annual Year in Review publication, one of the most comprehensive marketing outputs produced at Creative Destruction Lab. The Studio Wyse team always brings the best energy and creativity to push the boundaries of what’s possible, providing us with the right framework to operate in and communicate our narrative to the target audience in the most effective way. The Year in Review book continues to be the heaviest lift but with the most rewards; from the project management, design, and storytelling — Studio Wyse’s ability to deliver high quality work on strict timelines is evident.”

Amarpreet Kaur, Marketing Lead, Creative Destruction Lab

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