This Week’s Guest Editor: Robert Newman!

Portrait Illustration by David Cowles

Illustration Age is beyond thrilled to announce the third installment of our Guest Editor series, where we invite respected voices in the industry to join us for a week and share some of their current favorite illustrators, illustrations, or whatever they are geeking out on right now.

You may remember being dazzled by our first Guest Editor, Illustrator John Hendrix, followed by Art Director Stephanie Glaros.

Well buckle your seat belts, friends, because this time around we’re honored to welcome the esteemed Robert Newman! Robert has been working diligently on something really special for this week (more on that below) and we are both grateful for his efforts and excited to see it all unfold.

But first, here’s a brief introduction:

Robert Newman has been the creative director of Real Simple and Reader’s Digest, and the design director of Fortune, Vibe, Entertainment Weekly, Details, New York, The Village Voice, and Guitar World. As a consultant he has helped shape the visual directions of TV Guide, Newsweek, Cottage Living, and many other publications. Before becoming an art director he worked as a political organizer, printer, typesetter, and paste-up artist. He was also the editor of Seattle music magazine The Rocket. He is the past president of the Society of Publication Designers.

In February 2014 he was awarded the Richard Gangel Art Director Award from the Society of Illustrators. The award is given to art directors “who have supported and advanced the art of illustration.” Robert blogs regularly about illustration and design for Folio: magazine online and his own blog, Newmanology. Robert lives on the Upper West Side in Manhattan with his daughters Lillian and Ivy Curry. His website is robertnewman.com, and you can follow him on Twitter at @newmanology, on Facebook, and on Tumblr. Do yourself a favor and spend some time checking every single one of these links out if you haven’t already. You won’t be disappointed.

And now here’s a look at what our Guest Editor has planned for the week, in his own words:

The idea behind this special week of Illustration Age was to look at magazines that use illustration as a major component of their design and content. It’s rare these days to find publications that will not only put an illustration on the cover, but also use illustration as a dominant art form inside. Fortunately, there are still some publications that do this, and we’re going to highlight one each day this week.

The five magazines that we’ve picked: Eight by Eight, Anorak, Reader’s Digest, The Baffler, and The New Yorker, represent a wide variety of genres, audiences, formats, and styles of illustration. But for all of them, illustration is an essential part of the visual identity of the magazine, not just a way to decorate or accompany stories, but an integral part of the regular conversation that is carried on with the readers. The editors and art directors of these magazines are passionate supporters of illustration, each with their own unique aesthetic.

For Illustration Age, we asked each magazine to send us one recent issue. All the illustration selections were taken from that single issue, which makes these collections even more remarkable. Thanks to all the art directors and illustrators who are a part of this week’s Illustration Age series.

Thanks again to Robert Newman for taking the time to celebrate the power of illustration with us. Stay tuned all week to follow along, won’t you?

[ Editor’s Note – Robert suffered a serious head injury in the Spring of 2013 that left him in the hospital for three months, followed by a long period of recovery and rehabilitation. His friends and colleagues have organized a series of benefits to help raise funds to cover medical and living expenses. For more information, visit the Friends of Bob Newman fundraising page. Later in May there’s going to be an online benefit auction featuring the work of dozens of top illustrators and photographers, with all proceeds going to benefit his family. In addition, there’s going to be a celebration/benefit gathering at the Society of Illustrators in New York City on May 29. For more information on the auction and benefit, visit the Friends of Bob Newman Tumblr page and also their Facebook page.]