I went to Vegas for Christmas break to visit family and friends, and snapped this photo of the December 2011 issue of Men’s Journal on a stand at McCarran Airport:
It’s now the highest-selling issue in Men’s Journal’s 20-year history.
Russian Rolling Stone seems to have liked the look of our cover. Here’s their January 2012 issue:
The November 2011 cover has a vintage photo of Ali on it. I liked this shot because the on-camera flash makes it look especially stylish and contemporary:
I referenced the type design on the back of Ali’s boxing robe when I designed this feature opener:
For this feature on hockey player suicides, I asked our production team to modify some violent documentary photos of fights during games. I had them blur out the backgrounds, desaturate the colors, pump up the reds and give the photos an overall blue tint for a colder, more dramatic look:
Here’s a sketch I quickly put together in Photoshop to share an idea I had for the opener of our feature on Jon Roberts, the “Cocaine Cowboy” — the man considered most responsible for bringing cocaine into the US in the 1970s and ’80s. I referenced a photo of Roberts from that era:
And here’s stylist Megan Caponetto recreating it using a mixture of creatine and sea salt to simulate cocaine. It was really challenging for her to make tiny moves, because everything seemed to generate static electricity that would attract all the fake cocaine particles like a magnet:
Here’s how the final turned out. Photograph by Jamie Chung:
Here’s an underwater portrait of Rick Rubin, who’s lost over 100 pounds thanks to a healthier lifestyle. Photograph by Howard Schatz:
For the Anthony Bourdain feature opener, I went with a series of animated photos, rather than a single portrait. I thought it would give the spread a lot of life and energy:
Here’s a sketch I quickly threw together and handed off to my deputy art director, Eric Paul. He used it as reference when he started the design for the opener of the feature “There Will Be Blood”:
And here’s how the final turned out:
Hard to believe I’m closing in on my first year here in New York City and at Men’s Journal. Time really flew by.
