When I worked for Make magazine, I often had complete creative control of sections
When I heard from our Art Director that we had a really interesting feature about high school students fighting pollution, I jumped at the chance to give it a very different typographic feel than what we traditionally create.
When our copy editor approved the title "Grime Fighters" I began work incorporating the letters in a grungy and greasy depiction.
With a heavy stroke contrast and flagrant use of a curvy leg on the "R" I wanted to give an unnerving weight to make the lettering feel as sticky as possible. The tails and terminals easily dripped with oil, and I never drew a single crossbar straight to give it an extra accentuation.
Skill Builders
I'm drawn by the desire to use spectacle to push narrative, and that even the most mundane learning task can be framed in an appealing way. Skill Builder is my expression of such possibility by providing an easy-on-the-eyes flow through complex subject matters that equip the reader with what they'd need to know to get started.
This of course, requires considerable planning
Skill Builder requires far more participation with the editor than any other section in the magazine. Often we would have a meeting months in advance discussing each topic being covered and I would enforce an "explain like I'm five" rule of thumb to determine the level of accessibility of a concept.
This rigorous process involves a lot of communication to work. I have to trust the editor to be knowledgable as much as they would trust my ability to visually prioritize the information.
Specialized editorials
One of the pleasant aspects of maker culture is the increasingly visible attempts by major organizations to better understand the world around them. The New York Times founded a department that focused on hardware development that assist editors and journalists better systems of documentation, including the depicted interview table.
The feature focuses on the three members of this "hackerspace in a newspaper" their origin stories, and the quest to find more intuitive ways to capture data.
I was enchanted by Noah Freehan's quirky passsion for technology and how the office practically gamified their pursuits. This inspiration drove my pixelated aesthetic, with the specific goal of depicting the department heads in a distinct 16-bit portrait.
Upon receiving their printed copy of Make Noah immediately emailed the editor to praise our attention to detail: Noah purposefully shaves a small square out of his red beard, and his digital affectation was exact!
It's emails like that which make the extra effort completely worth it.