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we LIKE this magazine, thank you very much!
I am subscribed to both chocolat and domino, and I don't find that chocolat is sooo similar that it is a rip-off of domino! ok, maybe canada is behind on some trends, but i really like the canadian-specific sources. you may not know this, but many (most) online resources do not ship north of the border. maybe the AT office should get a subscription, then you can send a couple $USD our way and decide for yourselves whether chocolat is just a recycled domino, or if maybe there is a smidge of talent outside of manhattan, or even outside of the lower 48.

As a Canadian, I get frustrated by American mags because we cannot access sources easily. I don't really CARE if Chocolat is a similar format to Domino or not. I like them both, but knowing that I can purchase something I see in a mag is worth the price of buying Chocolat alone....

ange, I think what he meant was that the fonts, page layouts, and colors of fonts that the magazine uses were Domino knockoffs, not necessarily that the Chocolat people were incapable of coming up with interesting styling/home decor ideas for themselves. In fact he even sings the praises of the magazine for providing local shopping information for Canadians. Sheesh.

does anyone know how to subscribe? website? looks like one to add to my pile.thanks for the introduction!

Been a subscriber since the first issue. It's pretty good and has allot of inspiring images. The products and shops are on the more expensive side though.

Well, Domino was "inspired by" Lucky, so it only fitting and fair that the cycle continues...

Domino is a glorified catalogue that promotes little besides consumerism and conformity to the latest trend. I'm not impressed that another publication would mimic this but, at the same time, I can definately see where they are filling a gap (e.g. House and Home offers some good local resources but tends to cater to an older, and more traditional, crowd). BTW, seeing the mags at the newstand, I prefer Chocolat's covers to Domino's.

Oops - *definitely* not "definately"

Bluestar: Yes! The content is fine (and totally a great resource for Canadians)...it's the direct-design-ripoff that made me cringe.

Patrick: The important thing about the relationship between Lucky and Domino (and at one time, Cargo) is that they are all part of Conde Nast.

That's one of the reasons I said "inspired by" and did not call it "a direct rip off."

The reason it looks the same is because most Canadian's give don't give a damn about innovating and doing anything innovative. It always comes down to cost and how can we rip off someone else.

I should knows this because I'm a canadian and being in the design field, I always see many of my designer friends try and push the boundaries only to have clients unwilling to pay for something new.

I work as a designer (clothing though, not industrial/interiors) in Canada and i have to say this is a big problem in Canada in general. For some reason we/"the powers that be" don't have enough confidence in our homegrown design that our country is constantly ripping off design from the US and Europe. As a country we have an immensely smaller population than the US and therefore less money/resources/consumer spending, so US media pretty much inundates our lives (TV, movies, music, etc)

The people in power in these type of industries in Canada need to give the creative people in Canada a bit of credit and allow us to develop our own style, or we'll just continue to be a "knock-off" nation that doesn't support our own creatives. Many companies (clothing companies are notorious) just tell their employees "we want a guaranteed success, so just copy this ___ from ____".

Very discouraging as a designer. Luckily I've been able to avoid that generally by being really picky about who I work for and sticking to my guns about not knocking things off. Anyways, that's my rant for the day, I'm sure many other will have many things to say.

Huh. Then how come most of your HGTV Canada shows blow the US counterparts out of the water?

And isn't Candace Olsen Canadian?

I don't think the "rip off" mentality you describe is unique to Canada, Canadian companies, designers, or clients. People think "ideas" can be copied with no guilt. And every time someone anywhere (even here on AT) says, "I can copy that design/idea for less than it's selling," the problem continues.

I think there is more awareness of wanting to nurture Canadian talent than the average Canadian might think, as a designer working for an American company within Canada--when the time came for me to find a new job it was impossible for me to find a new job and stay in Canada, they wanted to hire Canadian talent!

A "knock off nation"? www.madedesign.ca

oh bluestar, i knew what they meant. i still don't think it's that close in layout & fonts, etc... it's an interiors mag for "youth" - so it may look similar, but i still don't think it's a "rip-off".
Like Ptoo says, many things are inspired by others, especially in the design world. think ikea... but seriously, i think it was a little rough to say "rip-off". that being said, this mag is owned by Rogers, which is one of the biggest media corporations in Canada, therefore anything edgy or unique just might not fly out of the CEO's office... know what i mean?
there are tons of unique edgy ideas that came out of canada that I bet y'all love: Christiane Lemieux of Dwell is Canadian, Karim Rashid was raised here, Vice Mag started in Montreal (that's in Canada), Umbra is all-Canadian, oh i could go on... but give us Canucks some love, eh?

Yes, Karim Rashid!

But we won't hold that against you. ;)

I want to clarify that I think there is AMAZING talent in Canada, it just needs to be better supported. It's not the choice of the designers to knock things off, but rather it's a matter of many "boss people" at larger companies not encouraging their designers to use their creativity as much as they could be.

On the other hand, this pushes designers to start projects of their own (ie. www.madedesign.ca, furni creations, MOLO, the multitude of indie clothing designers, etc) so Canada does have wonderful independant design, I just wish some of the larger companies would tap into this resource a bit. I have so many talented designer friends who toil away at these clothing companies and are forced to knock off clothing from Europe, when they're fully capable of designing items that are just as great on their own.

OK enough, dinner time.

"Boss people" are like that EVERYwhere.

well, i just wanted to let you know that some of the articles in domino, including 4 of the covers, are also featured in a UK magazine. i'm pretty sure it's Glamour UK, but i cannot be sure, because i read 25 magazines per month. several times last year, when i would get my domino in the mail, upon browsing through, i would have this overwhelming sense of déja vu. it wasn't until the domino issue where the cover featured the home with the pink painting that read "for like ever" (sep 06) did it finally click. i had first seen this painting in the UK mag, and i fell in love with it THEN. i'm not sure if glamour is a sister mag to domino and lucky, but now it has opened my eyes to recycled stories/ideas.

Holly at decor8 wrote about Chocolat back in late January. It's not a been a pub I've found in the international magazine stores here in NYC. If someone has seen for sale, please let me know where. Would love to check it out.

I just want to inform you the demise of Chocolat magazine. From what I heard, October issue will be the last. It is said that lack of advertising revenues and subscribers are the causes.

The question is: Why would I subscribe to a magazine when I will receive it two weeks after they hit the stand? It is the same way in the USA?