2022 Winner

When tasked to come up with a brand campaign for the 44th National Magazine Awards (NMA) – which celebrates Canadian excellence in journalism and visual creation – Rethink saw the spine of the magazine as a symbol of its most distilled form. Featuring the full NMA name in English and French, the white spine was placed against three different coloured backgrounds: Red to represent Canada, and gold and silver to represent the different levels of excellence awarded by the NMA.

The design system used a range of perspectives – white magazine spines stacked on top of one another, lined up side-by-side, standalone and in motion. For typography, the font Lausanne was selected for its contemporary take on the “Canada Modern” aesthetic, allowing the identity to align with the historical context of typography in Canada. The design was used across billboards, on t-shirts and tote bags, on printed event materials, as well as on its website and mobile.

Credits

Client: National Magazine Awards Foundation
Agency: Rethink
Chief Creative Officer: Aaron Starkman
Executive Creative Director: Leia Rogers / Morgan Tierney
Creative Director: Hans Thiessen
Associate Creative Director: Alex Bakker
Art Director: Alex Bakker
Designer: Alex Bakker, Sharleen Ramos
Writer: Sean O'Connor
Strategy: Darren Yada
Producer: Yogi Omar
Motion Design: Leigh O’Neill, Ignacio Florez
Account Services: Kat McKeen, Isha Kanyal