OFFWORLD MAGAZINE - ONLY A STONE - EDITORIAL LAYOUT

Finally had some time to actually create something new, especially made for the mag, as opposed to 'just' art directing the layout, promoting the mag & …

As mentioned in my first post here, on my Design Blog. I launched my very own publication, entitled OFFWORLD in the 1990's, and well did practically everything on it but, the fiction and most of the art that we published. Frankly I just didn't have the time, remember I was doing this 'publishing' thing in my spare time, at the same time I was freelancing full-time at Ziff-Davis Magazines. I mean who needs sleep, right?

COVER OF OFFWORLD #2. FEATURING ART BY CARL LINDGREN 

That said, while I was launching the first issue, as I  realized that I had nothing in it, except of course for my art direction, layout and whatever editorial copy I had written for it. So one of the magazine's section, our Tribute section allowed me to  showcase one of my illustrations in our Premiere and since my E.T. The extraterritorial hadn't seen print yet, I figured perfect. Since our magazine only showcased unpublished work. 

OFFWORLD #2'S TRIBUTE TO BLADERUNNER,  NOTE I ALSO WROTE THE ARTICLE 

After OFFWORLD #1 premiered, in addition to my BladeRunner illustration, in the second edition's Tribute section, I finally had the time to hire myself to illustrate one of the stories. The best part, since I had read and approved all the stories our editor Arnaldo Lopez had chosen, I knew which one I wanted to illustrate. I picked a beautiful tale written by John B. Rosenman entitled Only a Stone. A David vs. Goliath inspired fable. Loved it and well, here's what i came up with.  

ONLY A STONE  

Like John B Rosenman's short story, Only a Stone, each story we published would be illustrated with a 4/c opener, and then several black and white illustrations, created specifically for the magazine. Hopefully the scans are big enough for you to actually read John B. Rosenman's great story.  

The opener would be a Full Color, and the rest of each story I'd alternate spreads with art and spreads without. As showcased, here, I got the chance to do a really cool science fiction illustration. Pretty proud of this one. Honestly its not the type of image I usually get offered. Hence my excitement of doing this story. And no that isn't air brush, the original art was painted in oil paint on illustration board. 

Depending on the story and the page count for each, some tales had 3 spots while others had 4, but each began with a four color illustration. I tried to layout each story to maximize the visual impact of all the art. I must say trying to make the spreads with out art work, wasn't easy. But it was so much fun laying out the text. Designing how the foot folio and headers would look.

As showcased with the third spread above,  I decided I wanted to somehow create a very wide illustration. Trying to make my illustration make the most impact in the middle of the story. And once I came up with the idea, I simply loved painting it. As above, the painting was done on illustration board and was illustrated with black and white oil paint.

And remember, all of the art in the magazine was brand new, created especially for it, excluding the art we published in the Tribute Section, but as mentioned above neither E.T. or BladeRunner, showcased above, had ever seen print, so I hadn't broken any rules. In fact, one of the funniest parts of being the art director and publisher was discussing with some very talented illustrators, some I grew up admiring, that no we couldn't accept their offer to reuse some of their most famous illustrations in our magazine. Even at half the price. That would go against every thing that I was trying to publish, only all-new fiction and art.

And finally as showcased above, I decided that the last image would be a full page, and thought it balanced the spread real well. And as shown below, the last spread in the tale, actually ran 1 column short. So I came up with a preview box, showcasing the highlights of the our next edition. Which sadly never saw print.

There you have it. Let me know what you think, and if you do read the story, let me know if you agree with me what a terrific read it is. 

To learn more about my history in design, please check out:
http://neilfeigeles.net/DESIGN.html

Any questions, please ask.
Neil