NUVO Magazine, Vol. 11, No. 3

Art direction, design and creative direction of photo shoots for NUVO Magazine, a quarterly Canadian lifestyle publication dedicated to delivering editorial content that is stimulating, evocative, entertaining and informative. The magazine targets affluent, educated men and women with a wide range of topics on travel, business, architecture, design as well as celebrity profiles and fashion editorials. As an Art Director for NUVO, Sandra has redefined publication’s visual style and established design principles that are consistent with the character of the magazine.

Strong, captivating gaze of model Agnieszka Wichniewicz on NUVO’s Fall 2008 cover, confronts and, at the same time, engages a reader. Type’s limited color palette sampled from the photo, allows the use of large cover lines that outline a straight-on portrait without dominating it. For this issue’s cover story themed “Bare essentials”, Sandra collaborated with Los Angeles based photographer, Nino Muñoz. Agnieszka was photographed both in the studio and on location, in Los Angeles. The intimacy of the subject is captured in the black-and-white studio photos, while the colored images shot on location offer a realistic feel to this fashion layout. The minimalist aesthetic and the delicate treatment of type in the opening spread resonate with the theme of the story.

NUVO’s unique approach while addressing commercial needs is evident in the use of creative photography that displays beauty products in Looking Good department. To illustrate the idea of colour coordination in an article featuring blushes, eye shadows and lipsticks, Sandra came up with a simple concept of assigning a corresponding PANTONE swatch to each of the products. Delicate textures of the products intricately arranged against the colour swatches were captured by a Vancouver based Clinton Hussey. A moody, esoteric portrait of Jack Rabinovitch by Toronto based photographer, Chris Woods, opens an article on the founder of the Giller Prize. The dark, monochromatic photo is contrasted with an empty white space and a big title with a block of text on the facing page.