Magazine Cover Design

Back Cover                             Front Cover

There is a first for everything, and this is the first magazine cover I have designed. 

I discovered Salt & Citrus a couple of months ago. It wasn't through any effort of my own...it was a "sponsored" post that came on my Instagram feed. Always curious about art magazines, I clicked through and discovered it is a free online Canadian magazine founded by Ciara Gordon in the early days of the pandemic. 

Always interested in supporting entrepreneurs, I submitted some work to the Liminal issue published in March. Ciara and I communicated through email a few times, et voila, I was asked to design the cover for the May issue Rebirth.

There were very few "must haves" for the design....Salt & Citrus, Volume and Issue numbers, Title on the front cover....Contributor names on the back cover.

My original idea was to use a variation of my image called New Beginnings. I took the image I created for my Haven exhibit, flipped it, and moved some things around to fit onto front and back covers. This is the initial draft:

First idea - Rebirth

I really liked the concept (obviously, since a variation of this is in my upcoming exhibit). However I decided that it was too "busy" and too visually dark for a magazine cover.

So...I used the same "portal" theme with a simpler background. I chose a winter field for the background, added some doors, created a summer scene for the "portal" and kept the flying robin.

I wasn't sure about the font I selected, but the font name is Rebirth....the same as the title for the magazine issue...so I thought it fitting.

It was a fun challenge for me. However, I do find it quite different creating for someone else rather than just for my own satisfaction.

Artist Talk - Chester Art Centre

Last week I gave an artist talk for the Chester Art Centre in Chester, Nova Scotia. If you are interested, you can click on the box below and watch the talk on YouTube. 

 

My exhibit will be running until May 29th. If you'd like to see the exhibit virtually, there is a tour on my previous post.

Haven Virtual Tour

In case you can't make it to see my Haven exhibit in person, here is a virtual tour of the gallery before the opening.

Haven Exhibit Guide & Artist Talk

A project just wouldn't be the same for me if I didn't have a way to document the event. I have just as much fun putting together a book or magazine as I do in completing the project itself. 

This is the exhibit guide for my Haven exhibit at the Chester Art Centre. The exhibit runs from May 5th through May 29th. I have printed up a number of guides and am hoping to raise money for the CAC through the sales. 

Click on the image below and you'll be taken to the website for Blurb Books where you can view the complete magazine. If you click on the diagonal arrows at the top of the page, you'll be able to view it full screen. Then just click on the pages to move forward and back through the magazine.

Enjoy! 

Also, I'll be giving a free artist talk on Zoom on Thursday May 19th at 7pm ADT. If you'd like to sign up for the talk, go to this link: https://www.chesterartcentre.ca/haven . Scroll down under my profile photo for the sign up box. Hope to see you at the virtual event!

Haven

By Sara Harley

Exhibit Update - Haven

Everything for my upcoming Haven exhibit has been delivered to the Chester Art Centre. The exhibit opening is on May 5th from 5-7pm. Here is a little invitation from me that was sent out in the CAC newsletter recently:

I have created an exhibit guide and they will be available for purchase at the opening. Most of the proceeds will be donated to the Chester Art Centre. I'll post a link to the exhibit guide after the opening so you can view it online.

Funny story about the exhibit guides (not so funny at the time)...I had ordered the guides early in April and was guaranteed a delivery date of April 13th. On April 22nd it occurred to me that I hadn't received them yet and checked online to track them down. The information said the package was damaged on April 13th, and also said the package was "abandoned" on April 13th. Panic time! I contacted the printing company and received an automated reply that they were behind and it may be weeks before a response is sent. At this point, what do you do? I decided it wasn't meant to be, and tried not to fret about it.

But, I did hear back from the printing company and they processed a re-print and guaranteed delivery to arrive three days before the exhibit opening. They arrived yesterday...yay! Happy endings do happen.

Another piece of good news...16 images from my Haven collection were published by the online art magazine Tagree along with a lovely article about my project. You can read the article at this link (scroll down...it's a long one): https://tagree.de/haven-by-sara-harley/