On the Virtual Newsstand
Cover illustration by Christopher NielsenThis morning my first issue of Illustrator Australia’s magazine Outline was published! It’s a quarterly magazine, and was three months in the making; the last two weeks in particular a period of intensive work as all the material from my contributors began to land in my inbox (some of them skidding in at the very last moment). The last three days – really squashed into two – I spent laying out the magazine and completing the final edits, checking all the hyperlinks were working, proofing etc.
At 38pp, thank goodness I didn’t have to write the bulk of it: only one story, a book review and an exhibition review. Plus all the heads and standfirsts, the editor’s letter and a number of short news stories, and the back page… (Okay, I wrote quite a bit of it!) My contributors wrote the majority of the articles: either as interviews, or a few paragraphs on their chosen topic.
Opening page; Gregory Baldwin, whose illustration features on this page, uses both traditional and digital methods in his work
Five illustrators tell us that the digital vs. traditional illustration controversy is over!
That was always my motto when designing magazines: “Make it fit!”
However there was quite a bit of editing involved, including cutting on the page and some judicious squishing of text to make all the copy fit. That was always my motto when designing magazines: “Make it fit!” Editors loved me. It’s even more fun when one is both editor and designer.
Opening spread of profile on illustrator Gregory Baldwin
Second spread of profile on illustrator Christopher Nielsen
I kept the layouts fairly simple and straightforward to fit in with the budget. They were also based on earlier incarnations of the magazine: the same masthead, three-column grid and fonts were used; red, the corporate colour of the IA was kept, but I added a secondary taupe. Creating the Click! and Flick! boxes and icons was fun too.
A number of illustrators tell us about their 2011 IA Award-winning work
Second spread of ‘To market, to market’, a story about four illustrators who sell their work online or at designer markets
The back page was fun and not as gratuitous as it looks. As the magazine is published via PDF and emailed to all members, it doesn’t really need a regular back cover. It would have been a bit silly to include just a blank page with the IA logo on it, for instance – a waste of ink if anyone printed it. Instead, I decided to create a new regular section called ‘Vintage’ about illustrators from the past. It would be mainly image, with a little bit of descriptive copy. I chose Ida Rentoul Outhewaite, an Australian illustrator from the early twentieth century, famous for her fanciful and detailed fairy illustrations.
I hope the 300+ members who receive the magazine enjoy reading it as much as I did putting it together.
The fanciful and detailed work of Ida Rentoul Outhewaite, an early Australian illustrator