Award for Editorial Design
Award Sponsor: Context Creative
Winners (Tie): Shaheer Saif and Faith Innes Student RGD
Winning Projects (Tie): Marks of the Transitory by Shaheer Saif
Award Sponsor: Issues Magazine Shop; School: York University, Toronto, ON; Educator Support: Paul Sych
The intended audience for this project includes anthropologists, art directors and graphic designers. The book embodies C. Nadia Seremetakis’s essay Memory of the Senses through material and visual form. The essay explores how sensory memory—such as the taste of a vanished Greek peach—carries cultural and historical weight. As global markets displace local foods and traditions, sensory experiences fragment, erasing connections between identity, memory and place. The Greek concept of nostalgia captures this embodied longing, turning sensory encounters into sites of resistance and continuity. To reflect these ideas, the book is printed on Kozuke White 44g Japanese paper, whose rough texture and translucency evoke memory’s ephemeral yet layered quality. ABC Synt, a monospaced typeface from Dinamo, was chosen for academic clarity and structural rigidity. Fully justified text within vertical rectangles mirrors fragmentation and convergence, while curated images and ornaments extend the essay’s themes of loss, preservation and cultural memory.
Winning Projects (Tie) Notes by Faith Innes Student RGD
Award Sponsor: Issues Magazine Shop; School: York University, Toronto, ON; Educator Support: Helen Han
Notes covers mature subject matter, including the unethical practices of the Stanford Prison Experiment, which had long-lasting psychological effects on participants. The intended audience is adults aged 18–45, particularly those interested in psychology and the ethics of experimental design. A secondary audience includes readers unfamiliar with the experiment, as the book outlines its events and consequences for both text and visuals. Notes walks the viewer through each day of the experiment, reflecting its escalating chaos and violence. The book’s design mirrors this trajectory—typography and imagery become increasingly erratic as pages turn, emulating the prisoners’ deteriorating mental states. Stained, textured pages and a worn leather cover evoke the psychologist’s relentless note-taking and recall journals from the 1970s. Each chapter, marked by the day, represents shifts in autonomy and identity, conveying the loss of control experienced by participants. Expressive typography underscores the psychological descent at the core of the narrative.
Honourable Mentions
- RedBud Hong Kong Culture Magazine by Arnold Chan, Wilson School of Design at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Richmond, BC
- 無為: This book won't help you by Bethany Fung, George Brown College, Toronto, ON
- SAY LESS by Misbah Intisar, George Brown College, Toronto, ON
- Good Grief by Andrea May, George Brown College, Toronto, ON
Judges
- Ross Chandler RGD, Principal, Creative Director at Becoming Design Office Ltd, Victoria, BC
- Daniel Esqueda Guadalajara RGD, Creative Director at Daniel Esqueda Design, London, ON
- Christy Forsythe, Senior Art Director at University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB
- Nicola Hamilton RGD, Founder & Creative Director at Issues Magazine Shop, Toronto, ON
- Sara Loos RGD, Art Director at HarperCollins, Toronto, ON
- Quentin Mawson RGD, Art Director at Fathom Studio, Halifax, NS
- Christopher Moorehead RGD, Instructor at University of Waterloo, Stratford, ON
- Judith Lacerte RGD, Art Director and Designer, Ottawa, ON
- Jessica Tang Associate RGD, Senior Designer and Web Strategist at Sticks & Stones, Edmonton, AB
