![]() There was legendary picture editor Fred McDarrah and his army of talented interns, and photo editors Edna Suarez and Tom McGovern, and staff photographers and staff cartoonists, and people just hanging around the office waiting and hoping that their number would get called. The greatest joy of working at The Voice was being surrounded by an endless array of creative talent. (Left): June 1992, photograph by Kristine Larsen. The fact that we could only print in black and white probably helped limit the color palette, too. He and I would sit jamming on covers in front of the computer for hours in the mornings while The Voice offices were deserted (work didn’t generally start at The Voice until 11am…or later.) I think there was a direct connection between the small size of the Mac screen and the increased size of cover type. (Right): November 1992, photograph by Eve Arnold.Įmpowered by the introduction of desktop computers, we could churn out huge quantities of cover variations, much to the delight of Jon Larsen, who loved having options (good training for many of my future jobs!). (Left): October 1993, illustration by Stephen Kroninger. We had a tag team style of cover design, with Jennifer, Florian, Kate and I working on different potential cover stories simultaneously, and trading pages back and forth. ![]() Our production values were funky, to say the least, and we stuck to simple type and a very limited palette of colors, basically black, red, and the blue of The Voice logo. At the time The Voice was still sold on newsstands, and we wanted the covers to scream, to feel like the left-wing equivalent of a NYC tabloid. Heavily influenced by street graphics, gigposters, and especially the graphic design of Art Chantry (yet another Rocket art director), we developed a cover look that was big, bold, direct and graphic. (They were later joined by Kate Thompson, another ex- Rocket art director.) The Voice editor, Jonathan Larsen, was an art director’s dream: smart, visual, a cover provocateur who gave plenty of space to rise (and also to fail, which I did with depressing regularity). (Right): August 1993, illustration by Eric Palma.Īs design director at The Voice I was blessed to work beside Jennifer Gilman and Florian Bachleda, two visual muses who were infused with talent, creativity, and grace. (Left): February 1994, illustration by Sue Coe. In his covers you can see the pop sensibility and brilliant editorial graphic engagement that would explode with Michael’s work at Entertainment Weekly in the early 90s, and influence a generation of magazine design. Fortunately, Michael had a swarm of skilled and amiable pasteup people and the the deft hands and eyes of Patience Pinky Pierce, who lorded over the cover production. Looking back, I still marvel at how precisely they were done, pushing Atex typography to previously unseen levels of sophistication. Michael Grossman’s covers and inside pages were elegantly refined, polished and layered. (Left): May 1992, illustration by Philip Burke. And it didn’t hurt that everyone there was so young and good-looking (and cool)! Working at The Voice was powerfully addictive-in a very good way. And I never seemed to leave-even when I wasn’t on staff I was in the office designing the Rock & Roll Quarterly supplements and anything else they’d let me touch. I ended up working off and on at The Voice for almost eight years, leaving twice for other gigs, but always coming back. Wes was another former Rocket designer, the first of a steady stream of art directors, illustrators, photographers, and even a music editor ( Ann Powers) who would move from The Rocket to New York and infiltrate The Voice. In 1986 I was working as the editor of The Rocket magazine in Seattle when Voice design director Michael Grossman reached out and pulled me across country to work with him and art director Wes Anderson. (Right): September 1992, design by Kate Thompson. And I found inspiration (heck, I just plain copied those Voice covers!) from his work and applied it to numerous ragtag newspapers that I worked on in my early days. I marveled at Delmerico’s ability to create diverse, engaging, surprising, and provocative covers week after week. ![]() I would study everything about the design, right down to the little photo and illustration credits on the side of the pages. ![]() I was living in Seattle in the late 70s-early 80s when George Delmerico was art director, and I would rush every week to get one of the handful of copies of The Voice that were sold at the Read All About It newsstand in the Pike Place Market. For as long as I can remember, my dream was to work at The Village Voice. ![]()
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