Process: Designing ILLUSTORIA's First Cover

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Introducing...our cover for the premiere issue of ILLUSTORIA!

After a long cover design process during which we conceptualized, developed, reiterated and debated for many months, we had that "A-ha!" moment when we saw this version. We think it's contemporary and fresh with a DIY feel that speaks to who we are: a totally new kind of magazine for kids & grownups. 

As we worked on our cover, we asked ourselves: how do we spark the curiosity and interest of a 9-year-old and his or her parent? Will artists and writers find camaraderie? Will teachers and librarians see value? How do we stand out from the crowd with a single image and just a few words? 

It was a real identity challenge and pushed us to make an authentic statement about who we are and what we value through pictures and words—which is what our magazine is all about, after all. 

For those who want to get beneath the surface, here’s a behind-the-scenes look at the making of our very first cover. 

Step 1: Settle on a logo!

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Our very first logo, which we still love and use sometimes. 

This is the logo we were very happy with for quite some time. Interestingly, when we applied it to a mock-up cover we learned that what worked on stationary and business cards felt out of sync with our visual aesthetics, which had evolved over almost two years of incubation and development. 

We wanted our logo to show off a DIY attitude and be, as one of our team members put it, “perfectly imperfect.” Our aim was to not stray too far off course from the original which, as mentioned, we were still smitten with.

Logo variant #1

Logo variant #2

Logo variant #3...which we really liked.

We finally settled on a design close to the more understated original but with a bit of an edge. 

Final logo. We opted for the simplicity of b & w + red.

Step 2: Cover art!

We went through several really strong cover mockups that were quite beautiful. But beauty isn’t everything and we needed to make an instant connection on an emotional level too. That happens through tone, mood and an original voice which can be really hard to pinpoint. We wanted to say to our readers-to-be, “This is good stuff. We have something unique to offer you. Look and linger a while.” Even, “You and I—we’re gonna become quick friends, I can tell.”

The experiment that inspired our cover art.

It's strange how you sometimes find inspiration--or rather, it jumps at you--when you least expect it to. Our creative director, Elizabeth Haidle, was working on an ILLUSTORIA gift card. Out of convenience she used an existing piece of art to create a placeholder fake cover, meaning to swap it out later. But seeing the image and the logo together…something immediately clicked for us. A happy, happy accident.

I asked Beth to illustrate a young reader in the same pose, perhaps with a book in her hands. Within a day she came back with several cover options that instantly said to us, “Watch out, world—there’s a new kid (err, magazine) in town!”

These were gorgeous though I'm sad to say we ended up nixing the egg being laid in midair!

We experimented with a colored background and hand lettering. Along the way we corrected the trim size, which was off in the first iterations. See how minor details take time to finesse?!

Step 3: Integrating text and art

We experimented with showcasing our featured articles through words and pictures—sometimes only pictures. A high priority for us, as a magazine that celebrates visual storytelling, was to integrate the text callouts with the cover art in a way that worked together seamlessly. I didn’t want the text to feel secondary, and we certainly didn’t want the art to get cluttered by too much editorial content. It was important for the callouts to not be dry and overly informative. They needed to engage and appeal to both kids and grownups.

As much as we adored the thumbnail images, they distracted some from the simplicity and impact of our main illustration. It was a tough call, but ultimately the word balloons won out. We continued to futz around with the typefaces and hand lettering and even corrected a typo that had (admittedly) been overlooked for weeks, until we settled on...our winning cover!

Step 4: Make it look effortless

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Our final cover

So get to it and spread the word! Order and subscribe to ILLUSTORIA and ask your local bookstore or shop about stocking it. You won’t be disappointed by all the good stuff in the packed 64 pages of each issue. We're just scratching the surface of what may become a wonderful, lasting friendship with all of you: our coveted readers-to-be. 

Made By You: Call for Submissions!

We at ILLUSTORIA love kid-art! And we're pretty sure that chances are you do too. There's nothing like the pure joy, fantastical imaginations and uninhibited creativity found in kids. As the master painter Picasso once said, "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child." Ahh, to think and create like a child again!

Our MADE BY YOU gallery page showcases kids' artwork in the form of drawings, collages, comics, paintings, pencil sketches, calligraphy, poetry, crafts...you name it! As grownups to creative kids, everyday we find inspiration in the beauty, silliness, simplicity, complexity, irreverence and unfiltered aliveness of the creative expression of kids. Here is a place to show off those images and to share a bit of the love and fun. 

We welcome you to contribute to this shared gallery space for a collective, daily dose of joy and inspiration. What are your creative kids up to? What's on their minds and being made with their hands today? We would be thrilled to see. Please send contributions to madebyme@illustoria.com and we'll share them here...or for a chance to see it in our print magazine.

Who We Are: Elizabeth Haidle

Name: 

Elizabeth Haidle

Me & Eli

Location: 

Portland, OR

Profession: 

Freelance artist & musical saw player (& Creative Director of ILLUSTORIA)

Favorite artist/illustrator: 

recent discovery: Nathaniel Russell; also Jillian Tamaki, Brecht Evens, Emily Carroll 

Best book you've read in the past year: 

Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One with the Universe, by Yumi Sakugawa

Kids’ book you could read every night: 

What Was I Afraid Of?  by Dr. Suess

Best memory of being a kid: 

Dressing up as a ham sandwich for Halloween, made with scraps I scrounged from my dad's studio. My head stuck out of a bite mark at the top. I had a little trouble climbing on the bus & standing during the ride to school, but it was worth it. Absolutely zero other people were a ham sandwich that year. 

Favorite weekend activity: 

3-course breakfasts. Also anything involving a hammock.

 Song currently on repeat: 

"The Very Thought of You," by Billie Holliday; I just know everything's gonna be alright when Billie sings.

Favorite meal: 

Blue Star Donuts

Last time you made something with your hands: 

Accordian fold mini book entitled: 'Inner Donkey'

Patterned postcards using eraser chunks as stamps

Fun fact about you: 

I'm terrible at wrestling and my son always wants to, so I made up my own moves. One is called 'Cheek Pin', where you press the other person down by smushing your cheek really hard against theirs. Also they are maybe paralyzed by laughter, which helps. Another is called 'Cashmere Head Clamp' and requires one to be wearing a cashmere robe. Which I wear often.

Andrew Bird's First Instrument

We are thrilled to be featuring singer Andrew Bird in issue 1 of ILLUSTORIA! Singer, songwriter, musician and master whistler, Andrew shares with readers how he began playing the violin at age 4. From the process of learning alongside his mom to becoming a father and uncovering how to guide his own son, Andrew's contribution is a must-read for music lovers and creative thinkers of all ages. 

illustration by Leela Corman

Pre-order Issue 1 to read Andrew's story (and to find out what his very first instrument was) or subscribe here!

A Sneak Peek at ILLUSTORIA

Talented artist Agnes Lee not only illustrated the team portraits gracing our About page, but she developed a mini-world-within-a-world for ILLUSTORIA. You'll see our roots in Oakland and some fantastical landscapes that are pure delight. Agnes' mini-world will appear in Issue 1 as a large-format b&w coloring spread. 

Who We Are: Joanne Chan

Name: Joanne Chan

Location: Berkeley, CA / hometown: Oakland, CA

Profession: Mom of Sonia & Marcas and publisher of ILLUSTORIA

Happy Together: Marcas, Mark, me, Sonia

Favorite artist/illustrator: Pina Bausch and Hayao Miyazaki

Best book you’ve read in the past year: A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

Kids’ book you could read every night: Spider & the Fly by Tony DiTerlizzi (because we really do), Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing by Judi Barrett & Ron Barrett, Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown.

Best memory of being a kid: shaking the blossoms off our plum tree and pretending it was snowing in Oakland; generally being out in the backyard and helping my dad water the garden, picking and eating apples, plums, mandarins, loquats and the sweetest cherry tomatoes on earth…catching butterflies and, sad to admit, putting them in jars to admire.

Favorite weekend activity: making granola and watching the kids play pirate-Harry Potter in the yard (a trip to the art museum at some point is a plus)

Marcas as pirate-Harry Potter with Dumbledore's staff

Song currently on repeat: Three White Horses by Andrew Bird (at home) and Piggies by The Beatles (in the car)

Favorite meal: any pasta dish made by Mark shared with family and friends, darkest chocolate and mint tisane for dessert

Last time you made something with your hands: lavender satchel necklace + denim tote bag + pencil case for Sonia’s 10th birthday

Birthday lunch note

Fun fact about you: I once choreographed and danced in a duet (with my dearest friend) in an abandoned subway tunnel in Brooklyn.

What I Did Before I Moved to ILLUSTORIA

So, one day you wake up and realize you've been editing comics for almost a quarter century. It's unclear how that happened, but it can happen. 

As we get going here at ILLUSTORIA its founder, Joanne, asked me, as the magazine's Editor-at-Large, to talk a bit about where I’m coming from. Way back in 1992 I was a very junior editor at a music magazine called Pulse!, which was published by Tower Records, based in West Sacramento, California. I'd moved to Sacramento from Brooklyn shortly after college to take the job. My main role at Pulse! was editing and writing non-fiction coverage about music and musicians. I also edited the letters page.

One issue, in 1992, I introduced a small illustration by a local young comics artist, then still in high school, to the letters page. Much of our letters section was dedicated to people sending in lists of their “Desert Island Discs” — those are the 10 albums they'd want with them if they were stuck alone in the middle of the ocean. This is before MP3s and streaming, and before the advent of the Internet browser for that matter. That all kinda makes me feel old, but when you're working on a magazine for kids, as we are here at ILLUSTORIA, a sizable age gap comes with the territory.

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An early comic from Pulse! magazine by Adrian Tomine, from 1992

That young cartoonist, Adrian Tomine, turned his illustrations into a monthly strip for Pulse!, a strip he maintained after graduating from high school to attend college. Around the same time, Justin Green, a couple generations Tomine's senior, began a musical strip of his own in the magazine. Titled Musical Legends, it was a trip down Memory Lane, and roads further still off the beaten path.

Other comics joined the work of Adrian and Justin. The back page of the magazine was given over to additional monthly comics I edited. The first was by Peter Kuper, and a host of fine talent followed in his wake. I'm proud that it included early (and early-ish) work by Frank Santoro, Jason Lutes, Barry McGee, Ellen Forney, John Porcellino, Jorge Colombo (perhaps best known these days, like Adrian, for his New Yorker covers), Jessica Abel, Tom Hart (author of the recent heartbreaking memoir Rosalie Lightning), Brian Biggs (who these days is drawing many books for kids, including the Frank Einstein series written by Jon Scieszka), Ed Brubaker (a writer who no longer draws, and whose Winter Soldier storyline informed the new Captain America movies), Tony Mostrom (who did all the portraits for those two Paramount Records box sets that Jack White put together), Brian Ralph, Leela Corman, Megan Kelso, Matt Madden (that image up top is from a comic he did for Pulse! back in 1999), and many others. Some already-accomplished artists also participated — including P. Craig Russell (of Elric, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, and so many other comics), Archie's Dan DeCarlo (he drew an actual Josie and the Pussycats story for us), as well as Carol Swain, Chris Ware, Carol Tyler, R. Sikoryak, Bob Armstrong, and Gary Panter among them. (There's a nearly complete list at my website, disquiet.com, if you're interested.)

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A back-page comic by R. Sikoryak for Pulse! magazine, from 2001.

Writing about music, crafting stories about music (and occasionally movies), was my job at Tower Records, and the comics I edited were a means to accomplish that job in a creative way. Sometimes the comics (that’s “comics” broadly defined — some were abstract visual works with barely a hint of narrative) were themselves by musicians, including Marcellus Hall, Damon Krukowski, Naomi Yang, and Jack Logan.

Later on I ended up working in comics unto themselves, as Editor-in-Chief of the U.S. edition of the most popular manga magazine in Japan, Shonen Jump, where I had the honor of working closely with editors at the Japanese publication, and getting to meet and interview many of the magazine's greatest talents, including Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball), Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto), and Eiichiro Oda (One Piece). I learned a lot during my time on Shonen Jump, about cultural differences, national literatures, long-term narrative continuity, facial expressiveness, and depicting action. It was a tremendous time.

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A cover of the U.S. edition of Shonen Jump magazine, from 2010 

I've edited other comics projects along the way, including a four-part series for Red Bull Music Academy that involved light touches of animation, and that allowed me to engage with a talented Japanese manga editor and a pair of manga-ka (that's Japanese for "manga creator"). These included the story of MF Doom seen as a superhero comic, from writer Gabe Soria and illustrator Dean Haspiel; a childhood incident of DJ Krush’s, as drawn by Haruhisa Nakata; how Damo Suzuki met the band can, as told by illustrator Connor Willumsen and writer Zack Soto; and a profile of Japanese synthesizer legend Isao Tomita by writer Jordan Ferguson and illustrator Yuko Ichijo.

And I had a kid of my own, which is why I was, as a relatively new parent, doubly excited when Joanne invited me to be a citizen of ILLUSTORIA, which I like to think of as a diverse and sprawling city-state built out of comics and other illustrated stories: whether you draw or write or read, you're a full-fledged member of society here. I love Joanne’s sense of comics as a subset of what we're usefully thinking of as “visual storytelling.” As I write this little blog post we're working on the finishing touches of our first issue. I'm getting to assign work to some people I worked with decades ago, some that I've wanted to work with for decades, and some who are fairly new to comics, or at least new to me. In some cases we’re commissioning comics and other art by people who already draw for kids, and in others — and this is especially of interest to me — we’re reaching out to people whose work we admire and wondering if maybe they’d like to consider a kid as their audience, perhaps for the first time.

Anyhow, that’s what I was up to before I became a citizen of ILLUSTORIA, and what I’m up to now. We hope you’ll join us. And if you need to reach me, I’m at marc@illustoria.com.