Covers
11.19.09
Minneapolis altweekly paper City Pages goes ROGUE on their latest cover
Alternative newsweekly City Pages has broken new ground with their latest cover: there's no logo!! The current issue (pictured left) features a parody of the new Sarah Palin Going Rogue book, with local Minnesota congresswoman (and professional nutjob) Michelle Bachmann on the cover. In order to pull off the complete homage/parody of the book cover, the folks at City Pages decided to forgo their regular formatted cover and lose their logo entirely. We've all thought about doing this at some time or other, but City Pages art director Nick Vicek and editor Kevin Hoffman have actually done it. Everything about this cover is brilliant, from the concept to the way it ties in with the exceptional story inside. SPD talked with Vicek and Hoffman to get the behind-the-scenes info on how this memorable cover came about.
How did you decide to release a cover of City Pages without a logo?City Pages art director Nick Vicek: "We've pictured Michelle Bachmann on the cover twice before; once in a formal, painted portrait, and once as a cartoon. It was a happy accident that the Sarah Palin book was generating news and was to be released the day before our issue. The parody seemed an obvious choice. My editor, Kevin Hoffman, was all for it. When I got into roughing out the idea it was apparent that the logo would cause a great impediment to replicating the feel of the book. I tried a version with the masthead shrunk way down, but it was still a problem. When Kevin saw the cover mockups he said we should drop it entirely. I thought it was a great idea, and left it to him to get "buy in" from our publisher and sales director, but they're pretty savvy and were OK with us going without it just this once."
City Pages editor in chief Kevin Hoffmann: "We realized very quickly that in order to make the cover look as much like the book as possible, that we would have to forgo our logo. But it was worth it for the impact it would have on our readers."
[Other City Pages Michelle Bachmann covers. Left: illustration by Robin Eley; right: illustration by Jason Gorski and Bill Prendergast. Both designed by Nick Vicek.]
How was the cover created?
Nick Vicek: I spent a couple hours on it on Saturday and Monday, then finished it in another couple of hours Tuesday afternoon, when we send our issue to the press. The process was pretty simple. First I found a version of the Bodoni typeface to work with and a shot of the Palin cover. Then I looked over a set of photos that I had taken of Bachmann at a political rally, searching for one that could stand in, and got to work adjusting the colors. The rest, as they say, is Photoshop history.
[City Pages has never hesitated to play with their logo. Left: photograph by Nick Vicek; right: photograph by Nick Vicek. Both designed by Nick Vicek.]
Have you done other crazy things with your covers at City Pages?
Nick Vicek: We did one of our mayor panhandling for money, which was a little too accurate. He had to deny posing for it! We did an illustration of our governer exposing himself on the steps of the Capitol, revearling the seal of the President US seems to. Our most controversial cover was probably another illustration we commissioned of one of our writers, Diablo Cody, as the Virgin Mary.
To read the whole Michelle Bachmann story in City Pages, click here.
Do you know another example of a publication that left their logo off the cover (on purpose?) Covered-up logos do not count! Please send us a copy. Thanks.
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