The collaborative publishing of a magazine is an endeavour that takes many meetings, opinions shared and debated, words conjured and power snacks to finish. It also takes ninja-level editorial and design skills—it truly is a task to be proud of when done well. At Emily Carr University of Art and Design the students of my newly minted COMD 300: Core Studio in Communication Design (Collaborative Publishing) have proven themselves up to the task. Throughout one semester, eighteen students collaborated to conceptualize, develop original content for, and creatively design a single food magazine. Together we decided article topics, honed our art direction, determined typographic systems, and setup our template with myself acting as publisher. We present to you, Nibble. All content is original.
Nibble readers are young, urban students with a desire to fuel their creative and physical appetites with Vancouver’s best bites. They unapologetically hanker, no—daydream of devouring their way through the stresses of university life, consuming all their mouths ever wanted and their stomachs lacked the will to say “when” to. Tacos and microbrew? Kombucha? For sure. Organic greens, hell yes. Hidden local plates, bring it on. Their chopping blocks are ready for prep lesson, they share tapas in study sesh, and save their coin for tomorrow’s latte. They may not know Jacques Pépin or have big budgets, but that doesn’t mean they don’t care about food. Where there’s a plate, they’ll Nibble, and they’ll like it.
In this issue, we explore everything from round foods and their relationship to happiness, neighbourhood java cafés, our favourite nostalgic bites, and films that have unique foodie inclusions. Keeping student budgets and palettes in mind, we explore everything to talk, think, eat, sip and sit for. We hope you enjoy your first taste of Nibble, we know we have.
Congratulations to each of my students for a job well done! Your countless hours behind the camera lens, conjuring the right words, and staring at screens have paid off. You have proven to me that riskier, highly collaborative teaching methods such as this can work wonderfully with some grit, flexibility, and democratic discussions. Issue two coming soon?
Natalie Gagnon 