There is a little medallion on our cover that says Vol. 15 No. 1. That means airdrielife is now entering its 15th publishing year. Yes I am a bit impatient – waiting until 2019 to say it’s our “15th anniversary” would be the traditional way to do things – but anyone who knows me well knows I don’t like to do things the “normal way.” (After all normal is just a setting on the washing machine.)
There is nothing normal about the cover as I am sure you have surmised, unfolding (and unfolding again) the cover photo of our 31 Amazing Airdrie Women nominees. This is one of the most creative collaborations we have done thanks to the genius of photographer Kristy Reimer who has been shooting airdrielife covers since 2007. It involved eight separate photo shoots and once I saw the entire image I knew we had to go big and opt for the gatefold. I hope you like it as much as we do.
The other subtle changes are with our masthead. We’ve decided it’s time to freshen up our look. The last time we changed the masthead font was in 2010. We’ve also decided “exploring the good life” wasn’t enough for our 15th season; in a way what we have been doing for the past 46 issues is celebrating the good life so why not say it out loud?
We have a lot to celebrate in this issue – from the glam of the TD Mayor’s Night of the Arts, to our very own Awesome Airdrie Kids celebration, to local ranchers, volunteers, elite athletes, gorgeous artwork, Airdrie’s first brewery … we needed 130 pages to tell it all!
But we don’t stop at the printed page – our online presence is evolving dramatically with a soon-to-be-revamped website (coming this summer) and a very active social media scene. (We gave away more than $10,000 in prizes last year!) We’ve created and host our own branded events and promotions with TASTEairdrie, we are accepting applications for the Anne Beaty Memorial Scholarship and, of course, nominations are open for both the 2019 Amazing Airdrie Women and our 2018 Awesome Airdrie Kids. Since 2004 we have donated more than $75,000 in ad space to local community groups and donate our time and expertise to promote the local arts scene.
As we lean into this spring issue, my mind is already jumping ahead to the next issue…. (Yes, we have to work that far in advance – we have gorgeous photos of locally grown heirloom tomatoes taken LAST August that we are so excited to print this June.) I feel re-energized by our little makeover and I hope when you are enjoying a quiet moment, you can savour every page in that magical way magazines have to engage you like no other media can.
So start reading … and celebrating … with us!
