Recently in Awesomeness Category

I have a secret to admit. It's probably not something a magazine art director should share with the world (or in my case, the three people who read my blog), but here goes: I dread -- and love -- doing our covers. Next time you see a magazine cover, know that the art director probably spent many sleepless, jaw-clenching nights getting it to that place -- success or failure.

There's nothing like the excitement I feel when I finally nail the perfect way to grab your audience's attention and convey the right meaning with a great image and nicely typeset hed our clever editors write-up. It's on that note that I'd like to present a sneak preview of our latest cover. We were fortunate enough to work with friendly and obscenely talented illustrator John Hendrix, a generous soul who really went above and beyond for us. Enjoy!

I missed the Grammys, on purpose. It's probably hard to imagine that a music lover would miss the industry's "big night" but I simply cannot stand most award shows and prefer to get the most bang for my buck by just getting my flavor for the long events in wrap-up reports and fashion recaps.

Imagine my surprise this morning when I trolled CNN's photos from the event and saw that Chicago's very own gold digger avoider -- and apparently graphic design dabbler -- not only won (as expected) but that he incorporated typography into his acceptance speech. Clever sentiment and nice typesetting! Very cool.

It always amazing to me when talented folks turn seemingly everyday normal things into mini masterpieces of ideas. Take artist Wilfrid Wood, for example. Armed with some resin and a lot of imagination and hardwork, Wood -- as the folks behind beinghunted.com recently wrote -- "mixes humor, irony, exaggeration, as well as sexual connotations." However you want to put it, it's fresh. It's good. And it's definitely worth checking out. (link via Mira y Calla)