Silver Ozzie Award

Posted on December 1, 2009 by Benjamen

Folio just announced the 2009 Ozzie Award winners. I won a silver award for my design of the feral cat feature in my first issue of Seattle Met:

Cats

Trap. Neuter. Return.

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“Please make whatever creative direction changes necessary so that Seattle Met remains legible and enjoyable” (the December issue)

Posted on December 1, 2009 by Benjamen

Here’s some stuff from Seattle Met‘s December issue. First, a letter to the editor (“Read This”) criticizing my design for last month’s traffic and WTO features, and for putting white type on black backgrounds. Coincidentally, Backpacker magazine creative director Matthew Bates sent a note saying how nice the issue looked (“Eye of the Beholder”):

Letters

Letters

Continue reading →

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26 Perfect Saturdays (and 26 Unremarkable Ones)

Posted on November 1, 2009 by Benjamen

Seattle Met‘s November cover package describes 26 perfect Saturdays — and not one of them takes place in my office (which is where I’ve spent almost half my Saturdays since moving here). We commissioned Alex Eben Meyer to illustrate the feature and cover:

26 Perfect Saturdays

26 Perfect Saturdays

Here’s a Mudroom page of fake news articles from the future: Continue reading →

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Finishing up the November issue …

Posted on October 14, 2009 by Benjamen

It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to update my blog. I’ve been working like crazy just to get the magazine out every month, and haven’t had the time to do much else.

Here’s some stuff from the September issue of Seattle Met:

I continue to experiment with the logo (it used to appear exclusively in white, with a heavy drop shadow), and the way in which secondary cover lines are presented (they used to appear exclusively in a black bar along the bottom of the page):

Wine Lover Weekends

Wine Lover Weekends

(This 2008 cover shows how the logo and cover lines were typically treated:) Continue reading →

Posted in Art Director, Graphic Design, Illustration | 3 Comments

B**ches

Posted on August 2, 2009 by Benjamen
Barnes & Noble

Barnes & Noble

The August issue of Seattle Metropolitan is out, and it features really nice beach shots by Olympian photographer Ryan James Hunt (who had just two landscape photos in the portfolio that he showed me when I met him in June, because he’s more interested in shooting models than places). Continue reading →

Posted in Art Director, Graphic Design, Illustration | 1 Comment