Alberta’s “dirty oil” has been in the news a lot lately, what with U.S. mayors calling for a boycott on it and the provincial government launching a PR campaign - to the tune of $25-million over three years - to combat the oil sands’ image problem. (See the story in the Calgary Herald here.) The problem with PR campaigns is that the other side can launch them too. This one by Green Peace on “oil sands tourism” is particularly funny. Check it out at www.travellingalberta.com.

More accolades for unlimited! We were thrilled to pick up “Best new magazine” honours at the Western Magazine Awards, held June 20 in Vancouver.  The award recognizes the best new magazine launched in 2007 for all of Western Canada. Congratulations, team!

unlimited has been named best in class for its Art Direction at the 2008 National Magazine Awards Gala held in Toronto on June 6th. The magazine won the Gold Award for Art Direction for an Entire Issue, and additionally received an honourable mention for Best Editorial Package. Both nods went to unlimited’s Nov/Dec 2007 issue, entitled “The Giving Issue”.

The Gold Medal was received by unlimited’s art director, Malcolm Brown, and is the first time an Alberta-based magazine has won Gold for Art Direction for an Entire Issue.

I was also in the house, on my feet, cheering him on.

The National Magazine Awards are the highest honour bestowed in Canada’s magazine industry and this award for Art Direction recognizes overall excellence in design for an issue of a Canadian magazine for the entire year! Judges awarded top marks for Unlimited’s overall design, appropriateness to its editorial content, and for visually engaging its readers.

June is shaping up to be a banner month for unlimited; the magazine is nominated for Best New Magazine and Best Art Direction & Cover at the Western Magazine Awards on June 20th.

After receiving tremendous feedback from readers, it’s gratifying to receive such recognition from the magazine industry as well.

It’s June already. Too late for looking back at 2007. But in the spirit of unlimited’s upcoming July/August green issue, which we just sent to the printer this week and hits newsstands (and the post office) at the end of the month, here’s a discussion about the surge in green marketing of late. Internet chatter about sustainability increased 50 per cent in 2007, according to Nielsen Online. And the rate of growth will likely continue this year, and beyond.

One of my favourite Facebook groups is I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar. Yes, some people (myself included) take grammar and punctuation way too seriously. My particular infatuation concerns the use of apostrophes. Send me an email with a “their” in place of “they’re” – or more horrifyingly “its” instead of “it’s” – and my internal IQ estimator immediately slips you down a few pegs. Grammar check, bless it, too often lets these things go. Emails, often lacking checks altogether, are the worst culprits for errors. So I was interested to see the emergence of an online editing service. It’s brilliant. Imagine you have to send an email to an important client. Your desire to convey the message in the right words with the right amount of professionalism turns a once straightforward reply into an epic. “Does it even make sense?” you question as you type. And where the heck does that apostrophe go, anyway? Now before you hit the send button and seal your fate, you can run your correspondence past the eyes of a Gramlee editor. He or she will polish up your prose and fire it back in a matter of hours. (Hopefully your client can wait.) The service works out to about $1 US for 150 words, which is precisely the length of the average email. With fees that low, it’s sure to produce its weight in gold. And your bosses, they’re going to be so happy with their decision to hire you.

Your cubicle is hurting your productivity. And now you can prove it. A recent study by a University of Calgary professor, Tim Welsh, shows that the way an office is designed has a big impact on how much people get done. Not surprisingly, he found that if you can see other people performing tasks, you’ll be distracted and more prone to errors, which lowers your efficiency. So the next time you petition your boss for four walls and a door, you may want to find this study (first published in the December 2007 issue of the Journal of Human Movement Science) and put it in their mailbox. To read a summary of the study, click here. 

The unlimited brain trust has thought long and hard, and we’ve come up with some issue themes for the magazine to explore in the months ahead. As is our custom, these keywords are just a starting point for our editorial team and freelancer contributors, a springboard into the ever-changing world of “work culture.” Comments, questions — and story ideas! — are welcome: drubinstein@unlimitedmagazine.com.

Sep/Oct 2008 The creativity issue: how to market your company, be a creative leader, work in the TV/film sector, and more***

Nov/Dec 2008 The night issue: the economy that heats up when the sun goes down***

Jan/Feb 2009*The health and wellness issue: a holistic look at our health (including financial health and healthy corporate culture)***

Mar/Apr 2009 The comings and goings issue: how newcomers are re-shaping Alberta, and how Albertans abroad are changing the world***

May/June 2009*The relationships issue: how we work with our families, get along with colleagues and clients (succession planning, career paths that place stresses on families)***

Jul/Aug 2009 The second annual green issue: the green economy: ingenuity, the DIY ethic and technology***

Sep/Oct 2009 The money issue***

Nov/Dec 2009 The food and drink issue***

Jan/Feb 2010 The future issue***

Mar/Apr 2010 The humour issue: so a guy walks into an office… what’s so (un)funny about work, anyway?***

So there’s a popular YouTube video showing Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant jumping over a speeding sports car. Even I watched it — and I don’t watch the YouTubes much. Of course, it’s a shoe ad. But despite Bryant’s disclaimer (”Kids, don’t try this at home…”) there are reports that teens are trying to duplicate the “stunt,” which was not legit, just some clever camera and editing work. There’s no denying the power of viral marketing. The potential pitfall of this particular campaign, however, doesn’t seem to have been a consideration. In the rush to post the video, did the powers that be even think (or care) about its implications? (Speaking of hoops, our new issue — the May/June travel and rec issue, due out any day now — features an interview with a Canadian college ball coach who juggles a couple other jobs on the side. And much more.)

Jeans are the default trouser and look good with everything, so it’s no wonder us office dwellers try to slip them into the workplace. Work attire columnist Amy Verner at The Globe and Mail makes the case that jeans are appropriate, with a few cautionary notes. This year the skinny leg style will give way to wider jeans, which are not only more flattering to more body types, they also look more professional. For men and women, the overwhelming advice is, if you’re going to go with denim in the office, go dark. Blue denim is still iffy in most places of business, but some clever designers like Hudson Jeans are making coloured trousers that have the comfort and feel of denim, but come across a whole lot dressier.

Most media reports that discuss generational differences in the workplace cite certain attitudes that men and women of a specific age cohort share. Some of these stories are rooted in anecdotal evidence; others do reference empirical data. One of the oft repeated beliefs – that Gen Y workers are coddled and have a sense of entitlement – is disputed in an article in today’s Globe and Mail. The story, which stems from a seminar at a recent Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology conference in San Fran, says that new research is showing that perceived generation differences are in fact not nearly as pronounced as the media chatter would have you believe. Of course, this article has precipitated a barrage of online comments, and some heated discussions. The jury, it appears, is still out. But at least one line from the piece rings very true: employers should take the “radical step of treating their workers as individuals.” Makes sense to me. You?