My new review for the Folio: online Face Up column looks at the July-August 2014 cover of Mother Jones, “Koch vs. Koch.” The cover was art directed by Ivylise Simones, and features a tabloid parody of right-wing bogeymen the Koch Brothers. The parody is spot on, with just the right mix of funkiness and visual […]
In 1986, Paul Elliman took over as art director of jazz and new music magazine Wire, and gave it a complete and powerful redesign, stripping it down to minimal color and typography, big, bold, stylish photography (most of it black and white), and large swaths of white space. It stood in stark contrast to the […]
My new review for the Folio: online Face Up column looks at the latest cover of Lucky Peach, the “All You Can Eat” issue. The cover is art directed by Walter Green, and features a very unusual and very creative cover with a 3D illustration by Jordan Speer that looks straight out of an old […]
One of the happiest developments in magazine design over the past year has been the addition of Robert Best as creative director of The Nation. As the magazine’s first creative director (previous designers primarily worked on the covers, including most recently Milton Glaser) Best has been updating the magazine’s interior layouts and giving a sparkling […]
Artist Lynda Barry is having an giant exhibit at the Adam Baumgold gallery in New York City. It opened May 13 and runs through July 11, 2014. Check out the gallery website for a huge collection of Barry’s work. Back in the day (that day was the late 1970s and early 80s), I worked with […]
Mark Neil has been the art director of the venerable weekly UK music magazine NME for the past year. Neil came to NME after a stellar stint as art director of The Big Issue magazine, first in Glasgow and later in London. He led a redesign of NME October 2013 that radically revamped the magazine’s […]
My latest review for the Folio: online Face Up column looks at the May/June 2014 cover of Politico magazine. The cover features a striking cover line, “The Media Issue,” created by Post Typography and Politico creative director Janet Michaud. It’s a solid, label-like headline with an engaging, stylish image—a perfect fusion of text and graphics. […]
Jet magazine recently announced it was ending its print edition and will be publishing only on digital platforms. Jet has an amazing visual legacy, especially for its covers and photography. Herbert Temple was Jet’s longtime art director, in the 1960s and 70s, and was responsible for the cover design of this collection. Here are 10 […]
My new cover review for the Folio: online Face Up column takes a look at the April 26, 2014 issue of Billboard. The cover features a cool photograph of singer Enrique Iglesias, sleek, minimal cover typography and a bold, poster-like logo; it’s highly original, extremely artful and a crowd-pleaser all at the same time (I […]
Adweek recently asked me to compile a gallery of the best music magazine covers of all time. Called “101 Kick-Ass Music Covers: The most awesome, iconic and controversial magazine images of the last 80 years,” it’s a nifty visual collection of covers from the 1930s-now. Adweek creative director Nick Mrozowski and executive editor Tony Case […]
