Whatever Magazine is a popular general interest magazine that goes out to all residents and businesses in Vaughan, a city just north of Toronto.
When we were approached by Impact North Advertising to help develop the magazine in early 2006, it was a small format publication—somewhat similar in size to the Reader's Digest. The concept was solid: a focus on the city, its people and events happening around town. What it needed was someone with strong editorial and layout skills to finesse the product, making it more appealing to its target audience, with interesting and well-written features, catchy headlines, and a design that was pleasing to the eye.
Over a period of eight years, A Type of Magic played a key role in making the magazine the most widely-read publication in the city. From a small 48-page publication, Whatever Vaughan matured into a larger-format 100-page magazine with a print run close to 100,000 copies and a readership estimated at around 300,000 people. There were two major design overhauls along the way, with many new features added, and greater emphasis placed on quality writing as well as on visual appeal.
As Editor and Creative Director, Archie D'Cruz worked with and then transitioned to Impact North's own internal team, having helped build a publication that is popular with city residents, enjoys good credibility and has strong advertising support.
