Cottage Life
Services editorial design, illustration
designed at cottage life magazine at blue ant mediaI’ve been a contributing designer at Cottage Life magazine since January 2023. I design layouts for Features as well as various columns and regular sections such as Workshop (for all your practical DIY tips and tricks) and Waterfront (a fun-packed smorgasbord of all things life-on-the-lake). I also tackle the occasional illustration for both the print magazine and web stories.
March/April 2024 Feature
The design was inspired by Carley Fortune’s book covers, which feature a hand-drawn script, the romance of sunset hues, and vintage frames to evoke the feeling of reminiscing.
August 2023 Feature
I worked with writer Naomi Buck to pore through, select and scan archival photography to feature in this emotional tribute to Will Braden, a celebrated hydroplane racer. The layout uses these photos are hero pieces, leaning on them to create a scrapbook feel for the Braden family’s story.
June/July 2023 Feature
I art directed and worked with illustrator Heidi Berton to turn common summer allergens into zany monsters! This was such a fun layout to work on, towing the line between whimsy and—let’s face it—straight up grossness.
June/July 2024 Feature
I worked with Arisa Valyear, associate Cottage Life editor, on the extended headline so we could create a visceral, breaking-the-fourth-wall experience leading you into this service piece. The choppy collages add to the chaos of dealing with leaks, and the use of photography within them break up an otherwise quite flat, graphic layout.
June/July 2024 Feature
This layout started with a stylized headline treatment—I had this idea of magnified type and that was the inspiration for the rest of the piece. The ‘Itty-Bitty-o-Meter’ was my addition as well, giving readers a visual scale of just how teeny this bugs are.
June/July 2023 Workshop Opener & Spread
Art direction and layout design for a paint-themed Workshop section. Having the stories screwed into the spray-painted peg board keeps an otherwise quite stylized layout rooted in the Workshop’s core purpose: accessible service pieces for the handy and not-so-handy alike.
August 2023 Workshop Spread
A fun, cheeky spread with tips to stay cool in sweltering weather.
Collage & Layout for May 2023 Column
Layout and illustrations for a column on power outage causes, statistics and preparedness.
Technical Illustrations for May 2023 Feature
The ever-innovative Fiona McGlynn turned her canoe into a sailing canoe, and encourages Cottage Life readers to do the same! I was tasked with drawing up the plans for her How-To feature.
