The Brief
The Xaverian Weekly was founded as the Excelsior in 1895 as the official student newspaper of Saint Francis Xavier University. The Xaverian has published regular issues since that time. From 2015-2017, I was the Artistic Coordinator for The Xaverian, responsible for the visual appearance of the paper - in print, and online.
Between September 2015, and October 2016 I began the process of migratingThe Xaverian Weekly towards a clean, modern, and easily identifiable visual identity.
Previously, the logo consisted of a low resolution jpeg texture forming an “X” in a black circle. A wide range of typefaces used, and there was no consistent or coherent visual strategy.
Previous Xaverian Weekly Logo
The Process
Every creative process I start begins with a reflection on what is before, and deep thought on what might be to come. I have a deep interest in history, and I believe that to figure out where something is going, you have to understand where it came from.
The goal of the visual refresh was to continue the long history of The Xaverian, while upgrading its identity to meet the changing behaviours of the digital age and a new generation of students who consumed media in new ways.
A New Identity for a New Era
The result of the visual refresh resulted in a clean, simple XW mark which was easily recognizable to students as The Xaverian Weekly.
The logo was easily adapted to suit special editions, able altered into a rainbow flag for Pride Week, and grayscale for the post-US election edition.
Redeveloped Logo
Redeveloped Masthead
The Xaverian Review
The Xaverian Review began as a spin-off of the Xaverian Weekly and eventually became an independent student society.
The Xaverian Review produced an annual journal highlighting artistic work from students including creative writing, poetry, photography, visual arts, and more.
During my time as Artistic Director with the XW I was tasked to brand the spinoff group, and came up with a logo and mast head that retained elements from The Xaverian Weekly’s branding, while aiming for a handwritten, more personal identity.
Logo
mastHead
Posters
Throughout my time with The Xaverian Weekly, I created several promotional posters to promote events, hire staff, and build awareness of The Xav.
• Hiring Designers for the 2017-2018 school year
I figured that if you knew what those logos meant, you’d be someone we would have liked to have talked to. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out so well.
I’m not sure whether or not this was due to lack of supply, or a failed awareness campaign.
For all of you non-design types, “Id” is the logo for Adobe InDesign, the publishing program that we used to design the layout of the print editions of The Xav. “Ps” is Adobe Photoshop, and “Ai” is Adobe Illustrator.
• The U Election Debate Hosted by the XW
Fun Fact: This debate somehow became recommended by Facebook’s algorithms, and received close to 200k impressions, and 9k views. (StFX had roughly 4200 students at the time).
Newspaper Covers
When designing a cover I attempted to allow it to tell a story in itself, the cover is after all the front and centre piece of the paper. Without a strong, engaging cover you run the risk of having your paper being left in the stands, and all of the stories within it behind left behind unread.
I think that this was quite likely one of the most fulfilling positions I’ve ever held, as every week we were given the opportunity to enlighten thousands of students, and often see the results of this enlightenment appear in a change in campus attitudes towards highlighted issues.
Below is a selection of my favourite, most meaningful covers.
• Volume 125, Issue 4: The Indigenous Issue
An issue completely filled with Indigenous issues focused and Indigenous-written content, we felt that it was important to convey strong cultural identity and emotion, while retaining an element of ambiguity.
Pictured are the faces of 4 Indigenous women attending StFX, whose strong, proud expression jumps right off of the page. Of 1000 printed copies, roughly 20 remain in the XW archive (including personal staff collections) – it flew off the shelves.
• Volume 125, Issue 10: The Pride Issue
An annual issue of the Xaverian Weekly, 2017’s Pride Issue came about at a time of great global uncertainty. U.S. President Donald Trump's executive orders had directly affected the freedom of minorities across the globe, and a terrorist attack in Quebec had just taken the lives of 6 praying Muslim fathers.
In designing this cover I tried to convey the deep solemn emotion felt in Canada and around the world, and the enduring hope that remains in the face of darkness.
When the candle burns down, all that is left is “love”.
• Volume 125, Issue 9: The U Election
Subtly following the theme of my U.S. Election Night design for the Golden X Inn, I used this cover as a platform to reach out to apathetic students.
Pictured are the two candidates for President of the StFX Students' Union, behind them quotes from two debates held prior to print, and the Students' Union colours.
• Volume 125, Issue 7: A response to the U.S. Election
Immediately following the U.S. Election I felt a strong sense of confusion, pain, and an overall sombre mood around campus. In light of all that seemed to go wrong, there still seemed to be hope that Canada could be a shining light in a world of darkness.
2022 Edit – I fear that the same energy which propelled Donald Trump to power is now present, and active here. I worry for the coming years.
• Volume 125, Issue 8: The X-Ring Issue
The X-Ring is said to be the third most recognized ring in the world behind the Papal ring and the Superbowl ring. Strike up a conversation with anyone wearing one and by the end of the conversation you'll have surely made a new friend.
The text on the cover is made up of X-Ring engravings from the Class of 2017 with the intent being that this cover would serve as a sort of record of our class’ time at X.
A copy of this issue made it into the 2017 time capsule - we’ll see how well the newsprint survived during homecoming in 2042.
• Volume 125, Issue 6: Mulroney Hall
The building pictured is Nicholson Tower at StFX, arguably one of the more predominate features of campus and Antigonish itself. Beginning in May 2017, construction began on the new Mulroney Institute for Government.
While the tower remains, the new building gives StFX a chance to reorganize the centre of campus, improving accessibility, green space, and pedestrian routes.
– The Mulroney Institute of Government was completed in the fall of 2019, I took a few photos that you can view here.
Looking for More?
Volume 125 Covers (TBD – wrangling the archives!) | Volume 124 Covers
