REACH 2025

Creative Direction | Visual Strategy | Art Direction | Publication Design

REACH is CIFAR’s annual research magazine, showcasing the ideas, discoveries and people across its global research community. For the 2025 edition, I led the creative direction and visual development of the publication during my final year at CIFAR.

Building on the visual evolution of REACH over the previous editions, the 2025 issue continued to explore how strong visual storytelling could make complex research engaging and accessible to a broader audience.

Creative Direction

I developed the visual approach for the issue, working closely with the editor to understand the stories and determine how photography, illustration, typography and design could best support the content.

I developed creative concepts for individual features and commissioned and collaborated with photographers and illustrators to bring those ideas to life. The goal was to give each story its own visual character while maintaining a cohesive experience across the publication.

My role also included managing the creative production budget and coordinating external creative partners, researchers and internal teams throughout the development of the issue.

Photography & Illustration

Original photography and illustration played an important role in the visual storytelling.

I worked with photographers and illustrators to develop creative approaches that responded to the subject matter of individual stories, providing art direction and feedback throughout the process. This included coordinating creative production around researchers and working across locations to develop imagery that could communicate complex ideas in an engaging and human way.

Building on REACH

The 2025 issue built on the visual direction established through previous editions of REACH while continuing to evolve the publication’s approach to research storytelling.

My work on the issue encompassed its creative direction, visual concepts, commissioned photography and illustration, budget and design development. I left CIFAR before final production of the magazine was completed, with the creative foundation and much of the design work for the issue already established.

My Role

• Creative direction

• Visual strategy and concept development

• Publication design

• Art direction

• Editorial collaboration

• Budget management

• Photographer and illustrator commissioning

• Photography and illustration direction

• Researcher and creative partner coordination

• Design development