Like my colleagues, I am taking a few minutes at the end of this year to look at some of my favorite Prospect projects from the last 12 months. But as I am the magazine’s designer and all-around “visual guy,” my list will be a bit different from my workmates’, who will be rounding up some of their own articles. While my own rundown features plenty of strong reporting and analysis, I had nothing to do with that part. My job encompasses the look of the magazine—the typography and the visuals used to pull readers into texts and bring story points to life.
Favorite Cover
Illustrator Rob Dobi took on our entire April issue on economic modeling headlined “Washington’s Secret Policy Engine,” starting with the front cover, which opens the curtain on the issue (and the issues discussed). The way economic models are used to inform (and misinform) policymaking may be underexamined, and important, but it’s also a really hard subject to visualize. But you wouldn’t know that from looking at Rob’s thoughtful and engaging illustrations that ran throughout the issue. Those articles can be found here.
Favorite Interior Spread
I occasionally write for graphic design trade publications and have been contemplating an article on the influence that web publishing has had on print magazines. Most websites (including this one) are run on content management systems (CMSs), which assemble each loaded web page on the fly from uploaded components and targeted ads. CMSs allow for efficiency, but at the cost of flexibility. For example, opening art on prospect.org can only be in one of two possible sizes. CMS limitations can impact print products because art that is destined for delivery on both platforms means that web requirements seep into print too. But sometimes, as with Luke Goldstein’s reporting on the Google antitrust trial, we take a print-first approach. The stunning split-in-two art by Nolan Phillips Pelletier allows for the sort of spectacular use of editorial space that was common in magazines before the advent of the web. That article can be read here.
Favorite Illustration by a Real Illustrator
My favorite part of designing a magazine is working with talented illustrators from around the country and around the world, and I think the Prospect has had some great results this year. It’s a tough choice, but an illustrator who has been able to continually surprise and delight me for more than 20 years did so again in October. I love what Robert Meganck did for Jarod Facundo’s piece on an anti-union law firm.
Favorite Interior Illustration by In-House Staff (Me)
Although my favorite part of designing a magazine is working with all those talented illustrators, sometimes, due to a budget that is not unconstrained (or other factors), I find myself creating images for the magazine. My favorite this year is probably the portrait of Tom Scully I did for David Dayen’s profile of the former Bush administration health official.
Favorite Illustration Disguised as an Infographic
Data visualization is the art of making a difficult, amorphous, or large concept clearer by putting it in more discernible form than could be done in the same space with just words. But not all published infographics are true data visualizations—do you really need a bar chart to understand that a billion dollars is greater than 20? Beyond unnecessary pie and fever charts, the vocabulary of data visualization can be incorporated into illustration, often for yuks or as an aid to storytelling. New York magazine’s long-running “Approval Matrix” would be an example of both. My favorite non-infographic infographic from the Prospect this year is the speculative future timeline from Francesca Fiorentini’s “Rube Goldberg Machine of Primary Dreams.”
