Artists are taking over a regional daily’s masthead all this week to mark the start of an art project on its patch.

Brighton-based newspaper The Argus carried a colourful masthead yesterday to coincide with the launch of the ‘Snowdogs by the Sea’ sculpture trail which began in the city on Saturday.

The trail consists of 43 dog sculptures sponsored by local businesses which are placed around Brighton and will eventually be auctioned at to raise money for the Martlets Hospice.

Artists have individually decorated the dogs, which are based on the character in the Sussex author Raymond Briggs’ Snowman book, and the newspaper asked some of them to incorporate that design in its masthead.

Yesterday’s Argus front page

The Argus serves as the project’s media partner, and will be running six different mastheads this week to showcase the different designs.

The paper also has its own dog on the trail called ‘Newshound’.

Snowdogs correspondent Flora Thompson said: “The dogs have really captured the imagination with thousands of people following the trail around the city.

“The artists have loved taking over our famous masthead and having some fun with it.”