Toronto International Film Festival Publications
Annual collection of catalogues and magazines promoting the prestigious film fest.
Role: Art Director, Designer, Production Artist
Every September the Toronto International Film Festival takes over the city of Toronto. With over 300 films spread across 11 days, attendees rely on three key print publications to help navigate the Festival: the Programme Book, Official Film Schedule, and Press & Industry Guide.
Festival Programme Book
Each year, the 400+ page Programme Book for the festival is assembled and sent to print in a frenzied 14-day period. This catalogue is a project unlike any other, and a product of pure collaboration.
I first worked on the book in 2008, and led production of the book from 2009 until my departure in 2017 (though my direct involvement was more intense in some years than others). In that time we polished the the production process, finding new efficiencies each year, our techniques naturally evolving with the influence of new technologies and staff.
2008
The design of the book is very uniform, to ensure a speedy production process: Every film in the Festival is dedicated one page of the book. Each page features a film still, credits, and a curatorial essay. As films are invited to the Festival, our team would create a page layout, puts it through an intense editorial process, and ultimately end up going on press a few short days after the invitation is sent (We deliver approximately 16 - 48 pages per day to the printer on each of the 14 days).
The look of the film pages has evolved as well; for reasons both aesthetic and practical we subtly altered the design almost every year since 2008.
Two companion pieces are produced in tandem with the Programme Book.
The first is the Official Film Schedule which features a complete schedule, as well as marketing for curated selections from the lineup of films. This free guide is aimed at the more casual attendee and is omnipresent throughout the 11 days of the festival.
Official Film Schedule + Press & Industry Screening Schedule
The second companion is the Press & Industry Screening Schedule. This piece is aimed at the journalists and industry insiders who attend the festival every year. It features an expanded version of the schedule mentioned above including private screenings and conferences.
This guide has changed most significantly over the years alongside the growing needs of industry attendees. When I first began work on the guide it was a small schedule-only piece, but has since grown into a robust guide which now includes all the content of the Official Film Schedule plus additional event and schedule information for attendees of TIFF's industry conference.