YMCA 2007

This was a last minute cover that needed to be done quickly for a special congratulations tab we put out for the local YMCA. They've been working hard to get the money raised to start building a pool for the community to use.

The idea was simple. Pool, water, splash...

files/YMCAcover07.pdf

Drug Awareness

This was a cover I was asked to create as a spec for a proposed special section in order to see if we could do a section like this.

My idea behind it was a chalkboard feel, emphasising parents and children since the tab was directed at educating parents.

The tab did end up getting picked up and we ran it in July 07.

pdfs/DrugCover3.pdf

Hurricane Tab

Sometimes you have a photo so great you really need to let it speak for itself.

pdfs/HurricaneCover07.pdf

Senior Expo

Here's a cover I designed twice. Originally Senior ran down the left side of the page, with Expo coming off the E. But once the cover was printed and looked at, a friend pointed out that it ran together and looked like it was inviting everyone to the "Sexpo".

Despite my argument that this may actually bring more people to the expo, I went back and changed it to avoid that awkwardness.

pdfs/07SeniorExpoCover2.pdf

See the original cover design here:
pdfs/07SeniorExpoCoverOrig.pdf

Agriculture in the Heartland

With the dark rich colors and great photos, this cover printed beautifully.

pdfs/AgTab2006Cover.pdf

Kids Design an Ad

This is the most fun I've ever had working on a cover, and probably the cover I'm most proud of. Most of the elements used had to be constructed in Photoshop.

Firstly the fridge. You would think it would be easier to find stock photos of refrigerators at high quality. Yeah... not so much. This fridge was originally stainless steel. I could have used it as is, but I really wanted the white front fridge feel, so I had to strip the steel look from the front.

The alphabet magnets were another challenge. I could not find magnet pictures that would work or even looked good, so using filters and effects in Photoshop created my own. The seashell magnets were composited in from photos I took with my digi of magnets on my mother's fridge.

The children's drawings were scanned in from a collection of kids weather drawings that are collected every year from the local schools and used on the local weather page. They were then layered on top of random sheets of paper of different types that I had scanned in, and composited onto the fridge.

The post it note and the to-do list were made in a similar way. Though the to-do list was actually hand written by a friend and co-worker.

pdfs/KidsDesignCover06.pdf

Football Fever

One of the sports reporters came up with the idea they wanted the cover of the football section to look like the cover of a video game. And that's what he got.

Ultimately I think the design came out pretty well for a mimic. My only regret was the photo I had to work with. It was a great photo, but not at the appropriate res to blow up to full page size.

pdfs/footballfever05.pdf

ABC Back to School

I had a lot of fun with this cover and was really happy with it when it printed.
First thing that changed from the previous years cover was the ABC blocks. The old ones were way too bright and fake plastic looking, and I really wanted something warmer. Especially after pulling the nice wood table textured background.

Each photograph was a stock photo which was layered into Photoshop and then altered to give the torn edge photograph feel. The entire idea was a scrap book like appearance, or rather a disarray of photos looking back at school life.

pdfs/ABCcover05.pdf

Grad Tab

This cover was pretty simple. Just straight forward with the picture of the grads, and the iconic hat and diploma. To get away from too boxy a format I added the curvered cut of the lower panel. Just trying to make it more interesting.

pdfs/GradTabCover05.pdf

Cooking School

The first special section cover I made at Highlands today. The idea was to keep it simple and clean, but to ad color via the different foods displayed.

pdfs/CookingSchoolCover.pdf