The New Yorker limited-edition tote for the 2024-25 sale season.

Since it launched in 2014 The New Yorker’s classic tote has become almost as well-know as the magazine itself. People receive the tote when they become new subscribers.

During special sales a limited-edition tote is released as an additional incentive to subscribe. In early 2024 my team was tasked to design a new one. The brief was to create a tote that was both seasonal and evergreen, meaning it would work for both winter and spring season sales.

The answer to the creative challenge was to have an illustration on each side of the tote. We wanted them to clearly communicate the seasons but at the same time be thematically connected. Illustrator Miguel Porlan, a regular contributor for The New Yorker, had previously pitched a variety of sketches for merch store and we wanted to revisit one of them – a person walking a dog and the two connected by a wrapped scarf. I asked Miguel to explore a spring version with the same characters and he came up with a brilliant and just as witty answer. A person wrapped in a leash while the dog was chasing a butterfly, which is a subtle nod to the first cover of The New Yorker.

The final touch was the choice to use green color for the tote itself. It’s a first bright green tote for The New Yorker and it fits well in both winter and spring seasons.

Illustrations: Miguel Porlan
Creative direction: Nicholas Blechman, Thais Klein
Art direction & animation: Laura Dirzyte
Marketing campaign design: David McLachlan
Copy: Michael Polovsky

The New Yorker • 2024

I also worked with Miguel to animate the winter illustration for promotional ads. We then used the base animation in a variety of ways during the different winter sale periods to refresh the look of the ads in the emails, site and social media.