engaging heds and deks for Cottage Life MARTIN ZIBAUER

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Are You Sitting Down? The hed and dek I wrote for Ray Ford’s guide to composting and incinerating toilets has a tone—hushed, conspiratorial, even a little embarrassed. It’s how many people feel about toilets and their contents.

For readers of Cottage Life, this gentility is an inside joke. The magazine and its subscribers are known for forthright, pragmatic talk about waste management.

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Builders & the Beach Jay Teitel’s feature contrasts the buzz of construction activity on the backlots of this community with the serenity of its expansive beach. I wrote a rhythmic hed that simply balances those two.

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Farewell, Dear Plumbing There’s always a hidden emotional core to a service story; even draining the plumbing is, in fact, a melancholy goodbye at the end of the cottage season. Writing this display—hed, dek, and comic-book captions—required close collaboration with the art department. PA

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Cowboy Cottager When I developed this editorial package with Michelle Kelly, we started by asking, “How can cottagers have more fun than ever this summer?”

The hed riffs on a quick-fix package we also co-edited, “Captain Cottager,” which helped cottage heroes deal with urgent problems. To telegraph playful, enthusiastic risk-taking in the dek and subheds for this story, I used Wild West language—not what you’d hear in the real West, but the lingo of Hollywood Westerns and Yosemite Sam.

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You Don’t Know Lumberjack This is unconventional display—a mashed hed-’n’-dek that buries a service story’s benefit (learning about log-cabin construction). The opening spread dares readers to turn the page and prove it wrong. It’s aggressive and flagrant, and it reads like clickbait, but it works—and the story delivers. PA

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The Seven Year Pitch This lifestyle piece profiles several families who, instead of constructing traditional cottages, have built simple stand-alone decks and pitched tents on top. It’s a trend.

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Dash & Dine Your reward for surviving the Friday drive to the cottage… dinner that’s a cinch to prepare and a pleasure to serve

Pie Society Trustworthy pastry. Irresistible fillings. How to win friends and influence cottagers

Two recipe features with display that quietly sells the benefit to readers.

October 2013 cottagelife.com 79

PIESOCIETY

By Jill Snider Photography Jim Norton

Dutch apple pie

Pork apple pie

October 201378 cottagelife.com

Trustworthy pastry. Irresistible fillings. How to win friends and influence cottagers

Fresh raspberry pie

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The Winter Picnic Recognize the cadence in the dek? Film titles rarely work as magazine display, but here I played with The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover. This profile of food stylist Ruth Gangbar follows the prep for a photo shoot and includes her recipes at the end. Hence the dual-meaning kicker, “Lunch to follow.” PA

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Working on Sunshine A straightforward guide to solar-power systems gets a lift with a pun hed. Puns on song titles are powerful; readers hear the melody, but insert the words on the page. Instant earworm.

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Escape to Barbecue Island Why build this portable barbecue work centre? Because you’ll escape all the other chores. A dek’s benefit statement can break Display Rule No. 1 and make an outlandish promise as long as the surrounding language says clearly, “Smile. It’s a joke.” (Shame, that.) PA

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