A cool typographic project

June 23, 2016

There are times in every designer's life when you're in the right place at the right time. When my former Art Director at Traveler magazine (plus mentor and all-around great guy), Bob Gray, called me to offer a unique freelance gig, I jumped right on it.

National Geographic magazine had decided to update its cover logo (nameplate). From 1960 to 2000 the logo included two versions of the same font. The word NATIONAL appeared at Bartuska's normal font height. GEOGRAPHIC was elongated vertically.

Bob and the rest of the design team at NGM, including Betty Clayman, typographic guru extraordinaire, wanted to unite the logo using the same font treatment. We met several times. At each meeting we thoroughly dissected the ligatures, serifs, line thicknesses, and weighed versions of each to find the most visually pleasing.

I am a type nut, so the process of refining the logo was pure joy for me. When we finalized the type, it looked like this:

the new logo

The magazine has been using this version ever since.

Well, if Angelina Jolie likes it...

June 19, 2016

Then who's gonna say she's wrong.

We were very fortunate to have some amazing guest editors at the Kids magazine. Our staff favorite may well have been Angelina Jolie. Ms. Jolie was in town for a conference at Nat Geo as the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) Goodwill Ambassador, and spent some time with our teams to have a look at our layouts for the September 2004 Amazing World Cultures issue.

She was wonderfully kind, professional, and very down-to-earth. I was thrilled to see that our tastes were in line, because she liked all of my favorites—and as guest editor, helped us select the feature spreads for the issue.

Angelina discusses the design with NG Kids EIC, Melina Bellows.

NG making waves across the pond

June 19, 2016

It's always great to see people enjoying a book you made. When my kids tell me that our books are always checked out in their school library, it's a real treat. I hope each child takes something from the book with them as they grow into adults.

And when you see a grown kid (I guess that's an adult!) on the Metro reading a book with your cover design, it's a rush. You'll ask yourself, "Did they chose that book by its cover?" hoping it was a deciding factor.

So when our UK staff received the following letter, it was very sweet. Being a Brit (we moved here when I was four) I was chuffed to see that the Prime Minister would be having a peek.

The importance of humor

June 17, 2016

I am a fan of almost all things comedic and value laughter more than a lot people I know. (Sure, I probably need to get out more, but it's true.) It gives me pleasure to spot subtle humor that's been appropriately tucked into the pages of a book or magazine, added to a website, or placed in the background of a television show or movie. For me, the best part is that it's unexpected.

When I was design directing the Kids magazine, I always kept in mind that our marketing surveys found a lot of parents (and grandparents) were reading the magazine with their children. So every once in a while, we would try to add something they might appreciate.

One of my favorites occurred in an NG Kids lemur story. We were finding image after image of the animals "dancing" about, and it hit me that they are very humanlike. So I Googled a few famous dancers and had a good laugh when I landed on Fred Astaire.

Fun with Photoshop

June 11, 2016

I love Photoshop. Seriously. It's one of my favorite design tools, and I can't imagine working without it. For photo purists and journalists, there are many reasons to limit its use to the simplest color corrections. But in the commercial world, it's a phenomenal tool for illustrations and composites—and everything in between. I really enjoy making photo compilations from existing photography. And yes, for commercial editorial purposes I absolutely credit and pay the original photographers or stock agencies... and make sure the image is captioned accordingly.

Here are a few of my latest composites. I try to show the originals, and a couple of steps along the way. Hope you like 'em.

dramatic Shutterstock image for sky and waves

The final image used on Melissa Farris' Aviators cover