CityMag wins top national design award
CityMag took home the coveted national award for Magazine Cover of the Year at Mumbrella’s Publish Awards last night. Check out the cover featuring some of Adelaide’s best-known faces and the story about its creation.
CityMag‘s 2025 Festival edition magazine cover, published in February, took home the national gong at the award show in Sydney last night, beating finalists including Better Homes & Gardens magazine and publications from Woolworths and Coles .
The judges praised the originality of the food truck line-up concept for the magazine cover including its striking design and inspiring creativity drawing in well-known Adelaide identities, saying it was brilliantly executed.
A two-day photo shoot saw more than 50 well-known South Australians ranging from the festival favourite Gang Gang food truck owners, music producer Motez to new Environment Minister Lucy Hood and the Lord Mayor involved in the project.
“Noting that for a free independent magazine, it delivered a collectors edition that captured festival season and showcased the talent of the team,” they said.
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Lead graphic designer Jayde Vandborg said she was grateful for the recognition on the national stage.
“I’m really proud of CityMag and the mammoth effort that went into making this edition,” she says.
“It’s not just a win for me as the designer or for the team who made it happen, but for our incredible arts and culture community in Adelaide, who are featured on the cover.
“Being hyperlocal, CityMag is all about the best of Adelaide and the people that are doing cool, interesting and amazing things in our city and this cover encompasses the best of what goes on here.”
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To make the cover, Jayde started with a story of a queue for a festival-time food truck so comically long that it weaves in and out of view on the page, indicating that the food must be extremely good if the wait is ridiculously long.
The food truck in question was festival favourite Gang Gang, featuring co-owners Nina and Morgen Wynn-Hadinata. The shot of the duo sitting on their food truck starts the queue, and was pictured by photographer Jack Fenby, linking to a feature story in the magazine where Gang Gang took on CityMag‘s Chef vs Public BBQ challenge.
Watch how we made it:
For the queue, over two days, Jayde and journalist Helen Karakulak invited talent that featured in the magazine and some of Adelaide’s best-known characters to have their pictures taken.
Jayde photographed and directed the shoot, getting the best out of the talent by encouraging them to have fun first and foremost – festival season is all about being bold, entertaining and creative, and that’s what Jayde brought to life on the page.
Notable faces on the cover include Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith, newly-minted environment minister and member for Adelaide Lucy Hood, award-winning sexologist Jamie Bucirde, award-winning cabaret performer Millicent Sarre and Penny University’s Foti Likouras.
After the bumper photoshoot, Jayde expertly cut each image to create the layout reminiscent of waiting in line for a food truck, as much of Adelaide does during festival season.
“It was designed to be bright, eye-catching, and easily spotted from a great distance and among the chaos of crowds in fringe venues and from the reception we got once it hit streets, it’s safe to say we met our brief,” Jayde says.
