244: Serving Up Magazines with Nicola Hamilton

Magazine love is in the air!

This 3 part mini-series features 3 designers who bring different kinds of magazines to life.

First up we have the lovely Nicola Hamilton here!

Nicola Hamilton (she/her) is an independent creative based in Toronto, Canada. She began her career at the beloved, city-weekly The Grid (2011-2014). She’s spent time as Chatelaine’s Deputy Art Director (2015-2017) where she helped lead the team through a redesign of both their print and digital properties and as Studio Wyse's Art Director (2017-2020) where she helped redesign, reposition and produce publications for clients such as Xtra, The University of Toronto Magazine, and Ryerson University Magazine. Today, Nicola is the Creative Director at Serviette Magazine, a part-time design educator, President ofThe Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD) and she maintains an artistic practice via The Scaries, exploring the emotional realities of being creative. In July 2022, Nicola opened Issues Magazine Shop, a retailer of independent magazines from around the world.

In this conversation, you’ll hear Nicola share what it means to work on projects that manifest in print, as well as how she approaches the design of Serviette magazine to serve the content and audience, including working with a number of design constraints.

Nicola shares insights about how she believes current students keen on being part of the magazine industry can work on achieving this reality. We talk about what it means to try and fail in magazine making, as well as communication and collaboration necessary to make a magazine happen. Nicola also chats about her ‘clubhouse for print’, Issues Mag Shop, and you’ll hear what she’s most excited about in Magazine Land.

You can also find Nicola chatting about design and magazines in the following past episodes: