The Narwhal V
print, layout
The Narwhal is a team of investigative journalists, who dive deep to tell stories about Canada’s natural environment you can’t find anywhere else.
For the fifth print issue of The Narwhal we pushed the creative and conceptual layouts even further. We once again introduced a slightly expanded colour palette, as well as some extra type styles used alongside the foundational brand ones. After the Letter From The Founders, we added a short impact section, highlighting key details and numbers from the past few years. Throughout the magazine, we introduced "Our Favourite Photos Of The Year" sidebar stories, featuring a photo and a brief write-up, often placed on colourful background elements.
Scroll through the below photos to read a bit more about the design thinking behind specific stories.
The table of contents is a finishing touch whenever designing an editorial magazine. It nods towards the visual language and style on the following pages. This issue of the magazine is very typography-focused, making use of distinct styles and combinations and oversized type laid out creatively.
Most article introduction spreads feature large typography, laid out in a creative manner; on an angle, rotated sideways to take up a page, across two spreads, etc. As with previous issues, the layout is very photo-heavy, taking a collage-like approach to laying them all out.
Holding In The Deep is an explainer article about Canada's plan to store spent nuclear fuel deep underground in the Great Lakes. It's quite a wordy article without photos, therefore we had to think of a creative approach to designing it. Our main reference point was a graphic by the U.S. Department of Energy from the 1990s, illustrating spikes as a warning to deter future humans from disturbing nuclear waste disposal sites. The six-page article is designed in primarily black and white, with wide, chunky text columns shaped to reflect these ominous spikes, with pull quotes and a map interjecting in a similar pointed style. We considered designing the whole article on black to further drive home the "underground" concept but decided to prioritize easier legibility on white, instead focusing on the column spikes and the negative space they create across the pages.
This Was Our Forever Home is a story about the Lehigh Floods. We took a literal approach to floods, laying out the whole article on a light blue background and having the letters of the article wash off the text lines. The photos across the introduction spread, while following the grid, are laid out in what appears to be a random placement, as if disturbed by flowing water, with the word Home in the title is slowly rolling off the page. This concept is further explored on the inside pages of the article; without affecting the legibility of the article, the paragraphs at the edges of some pages have select words displaced by the flood.
A life — and death — in Fort Chipewyan is a photo essay by Ian Willms who spent years documenting communities downstream of Alberta’s oilsands. He was invited to join Warren Simpson, dying from a rare form of cancer he believed to be linked to the mines, for his last breaths. The words and photos are quite heavy, but an important part of the story. We laid out the whole article on the brand black background and tried to give the photos as much attention and focus as possible.
It felt really special to end the fifth issue of The Narwhal with the world’s best-known naturalist Jane Goodall. To celebrate Jane her portrait takes up a whole page, and her name is as large as possible across two spreads.
I've been working with Alicia for four years in her capacity as lead designer for The Narwhal's annual print edition magazine. In addition to being a truly creative force, Alicia is also a masterful project manager, which has been most welcome over the years with projects that require both an artful touch and a keen attention for detail. Ten out of ten. You will not regret working with this lovely and very professional human being.
Carol Linnitt,
Executive Editor
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