The Eyeopener

Celebrating 50 Years of Publication

In 2016, I was approached by The Eyeopener – Toronto Metropolitan University’s independent student-run weekly newspaper – to illustrate the front cover of a special issue celebrating the paper’s 50th year of publication.

To honour the newspaper's past legacy and its present at the same time, we recreated the cover image from its first-ever issue and modernized it to showcase the paper's evolution since its initial launch.

Client/Studio: The Eyeopener
Role: Illustrator / Editorial Team
Project Date: 2013-2016

I collaborated with past editors-in-chief Mohamed Omar and Nicole Schmidt to refine the vision for this updated illustration, and to establish how we wanted to portray the contemporary in it. Our approach involved:

Showcasing modernised illustration techniques
Reflecting the current student body and celebrating its diversity
Depicting contemporary styles, trends, and technologies
And showing how the physical campus had evolved with the construction of new buildings

We worked toward defining a visual style based on my existing body of work, which had been developed during my own time as a member of The Eyeopener's editorial masthead.

In addition to its regular circulation, this special edition was fêted at an event that brought Eyeopener editors and contributors from across the decades together.