Concept sketch:

Illustration by James Heimer — check out more artwork on his website and his blog. Thanks for the great work, James!

I’ve been a jazz fan for a long time, and a huge fan of the classic Blue Note Records album sleeves designed by Reid Miles. Last weekend was Jazz’SAlive, our annual free jazz festival (not “free jazz” — just free as in “doesn’t cost anything”) held downtown, and so I finally got a chance to do an homage to the Blue Note style with photos of the headliners, Béla Fleck and Marcus Roberts. It was especially fun adding all the little details like the worn circle (from the vinyl inside).

“Queen Tin” by Alex & Felix, part of Fotoseptiembre 2012

Did a couple things with this one that I’ve never done before: I put the logo running up the side, and I did a full-on, unapologetic parody of Shepard Fairey’s iconic (to the point of overkill, admittedly) Obama “Hope” poster. (Not going to link to it, you know what image I’m talking about). The subject: San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro, who was selected to give the keynote speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. (This cover came out when the news originally broke, I’m waaaaaay behind on updating this site, sorry.) There was a swell of SA pride going around (in some circles), with some people even claiming him to be a Latino Obama (I kept trying to coin the term “Latinobama” but it didn’t stick).

So I figured it’d be fun to play with all this and literally wrap him up in Obama’s imagery, but the tag at the bottom is undecided as to what Castro should be. President? Senator? A remake of the Schwarzenegger/DeVito classic Twins? (That last one is my favorite.) Regardless of whether you’re a fan of him as SA’s mayor, or his pretty-good speech at the DNC, the facts are that he’s not exactly qualified to be President of the United States in 2016. Eventual Governor of Texas, more likely.

With the exception of a few weirdly bitter haters (if they want to call it like they see it, so will I), this cover was hugely well-received. I think what people are responding to is that the mere idea of someone who looks like Castro (and his twin brother, Joaquin, obvs) being mentioned as even a hypothetical candidate for the presidency would not have been possible pre-Obama. As the cultural landscape changes (read: more and more Latinos), our politicians will change, too. That’s just how it works. This totally freaks out some people, but if it isn’t Julián Castro or his brother Joaquin leading the nation someday, there will be a Latino (or Latina?) Commander in Chief in my lifetime. (Just not Marco Rubio, OK?)

On July 18, 2012, the Current relaunched itself as a glossy-covered, stitched-and-trimmed, full-bleeding, too-legit-to-quit weekly magazine. This is my second full top-to-bottom redesign of the Current — my first was in summer 2007 shortly after becoming Art Director. Not only are the covers slick, glossy, and beautiful (like our previous Best of SA and Drink issues), but the interior pages have been redesigned down to every detail and some things have been re-imagined from the ground up with an eye toward a more magazine-like visuals. This has given me some more leeway to create different kinds of pages, with bolder graphics, more photos, and more playful layouts. So far reaction has been pretty positive across the board. We’ll keep thinking of ways to surprise, delight, and occasionally infuriate our readers week in and week out.

Below are some pages I particularly liked. Enjoy!