Honoring Black History Month

 
 

The SPD Board is honoring Black History Month by kicking off a series that celebrates and honors Black creatives throughout the month of February.


First up are the picks from SPD board member, Emem Offong, VP, User Experience Design Lead, JPMorgan Chase & Co. She would like to highlight and introduce these three amazing women to you.

Notice, follow and support these exceptional women.

Ari Melenciano
@ariciano

“I first encountered Ari’s work at the inaugural Afrotectopia festival in 2018 which she founded. Afrotectopia has since grown into an organization dedicated to exploring the intersection of design, art, technology, Black culture and activism—a vital space for visionary work.”

Aurélia Durand
@4ur3lia

“Aurélia’s dynamic and inventive illustrations have been a favorite for years. The extensive color palette she works with—an integral component of her visual style—infuses her work with so much joy.”
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“Nicole has an ingenious talent for transforming ordinary furniture into statement pieces with vibrant, colorful textures and patterns—I love the artful way she pairs prints. To me, her pieces have always evoked home.”

 

Next up in our Honoring Black History Month series, SPD board member Jamie Prokell, Creative Director of Men’s Health would like to introduce and highlight these three groundbreaking creatives.

Make sure to check out their work below and most importantly—Notice, Follow, + Support these exceptional Black men.

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Huston Wilson
@hustwilson

“This self-taught lettering artist and graphic designer based in Johannesburg, South Africa, brings a fresh eye and unique talent to his work. I am liking his ability to build typography into the 3d world.”


Arrington Porter
@heir_porter

“Painter, musician, all-around renaissance man. Creating beats, or original art he is always capturing the richness of his experiences. I love the way he blurs the lines of reality and dreams. Always bringing his original voice to whatever medium he is working.”


Mark Harris

@mrkhrrs_

“Mark’s collage work is a blend of raw feelings and witty concepts. He combines images, shapes and colors that evoke a visceral response that I love. His editorial work brings a sense of visual delight to readers everywhere.”

 
 

A Celebration of Football Editorials

To celebrate the season finale of America’s favorite sport, here are some of our favorite football editorials of all time!

Page Six TV: ESSENCE's December 2018/January 2019 Cover with Entertainment Director, Cori Murray

 
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Yesterday, ESSENCE debuted their December 2018/January 2019 issue with Michelle Obama gracing the cover. ESSENCE’s Entertainment Director, Cori Murray chatted with Page Six TV about the photoshoot and gave a special shout out to SPD Member and ESSENCE’s Creative Director, Ronda Thompson. Check it out above!

The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell: New York Magazine's Latest Issue - School-Shooting Survivors Bear Their Scars, and Bear Witness

 
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The October 29 - November 11, 2018 issue of New York Magazine shares a portfolio by photographer Michael Avedon featuring survivors of school shootings from 1946 to 2018. He was recently interviewed on The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell. Check out the interview below.

To see more from the issue check out the article here and the video the magazine published below.

CREDITS

Design Director: Thomas Alberty

Photography Director: Jody Quon

Photographer: Michael Avedon

ESPN The Magazine's NBA Preview: 30 Dramas To Watch

ESPN The Magazine debuted their NBA Preview earlier this month on SportsCenter. With five split run print covers and 30 digital posters, this year’s preview compared the teams to television shows. We checked in with ESPN The Magazine Art Director, Rami Moghadam to take us behind-the-scenes. Here’s what he told us about this extensive project:


“Planning this year’s NBA Preview, we knew we were facing a challenge. The Golden State Warriors were yet again projected to be the team to beat. On top of that, we built last year’s NBA Preview around the Warriors. We asked ourselves: If the outcome is such a foregone conclusion, why does anyone care? The answer we landed on is that the NBA is a perpetual motion machine of drama.

So we decided to build this year’s issue around precisely that, drama. We identified the drama point for each team, then ranked the teams not by how good they would be, but by how central their drama would be the coming season. 

Thinking of the 30 NBA teams as individual dramas inspired us to create 30 TV-drama inspired posters with the help of photo illustrator Eric Heintz. Posters for the Lakers (Strangest Things), Thunder (Better Call Paul), Warriors (Empire), 76ers (CSI: Philly), and Celtics (Baller) graced our five covers.

Working with photographer Peter Yang, who shot all features for this issue, we brainstormed ideas to help these dramas come to life by recreating scenes from the shows. To supplement these visuals, we commissioned Alejandro Parrilla Galan to illustrate a set of playful icons, further linking the worlds of basketball and the various TV dramas we were referencing.

In our most ambitious effort in recent memory, we made sure every single page took inspiration from the concept, even redesigning our Forward section, appropriately renaming it The Big Ticket, while also building a custom digital gallery to house all 30 posters”

-Rami Moghadam
Lead Art Director, NBA Preview 


CREDITS

Senior Creative Director, Digital & Print: Chin Wang
Art Directors: Rami Moghadam, Eric Paul
Associate Art Directors: Linda Root Pouder, Munehito Sawada
Senior Designer: Christopher DeLisle
Designer: Tiffany Middleton
Director of Photography, Digital & Print: Tim Rasmussen
Director of Photography, ESPN The Magazine: Karen Frank
Senior Photo Editor: Nick Galac
Photo Researcher: John Klein

Digital Gallery
Art Directors: Heather Donahue, Rami Moghadam
Senior Front End Developer: Joey Maese

Editor-In-Chief: Alison Overholt

MONGOLIA: Frédéric Lagrange's Passion Project

This video piece was created for the Kickstarter campaign for Mongoliaa large format photography book, and photographer Frédéric Lagrange’s personal passion project. The book tells the visual story of this largely unknown and intriguing country and its people through a series of 185 black & white and color portraits and landscapes and took Lagrange 17 years—and 13 month-long trips to complete. Matt Willey, Art Director of The New York Times Magazine designed the book and author and travel writer, Pico Iyer wrote the foreword. Gretchen Smelter, Creative Director (and Frédéric's wife) directed the project from her post in Hong Kong. Misha Koroteev, Director, edited the Kickstarter video.

The book is available on Kickstarter until October 25th. Check it out here!