Complex: Style and Design Issue

Tim Leong, Design Director at Complex, sends a behind-the-scenes update from their Aug/Sept issue on stands now:

It's our 5th Annual Style and Design Issue, in which we did collaborations between artists and the photoshoots for both of our covers and cover stories.

On one side we have singer/songwriter Keri Hilson, and paired her with the great French artist So-Me (who directed videos for Kanye West, Kid Cudi and JUSTICE).

Here's a link to the video/story/gallery and here's a link to an interview with the artist, So-Me. We loved the typography and playful lettering So-Me had done in his video work, and we looking a similar feeling on the cover. So-Me wasn't able to come to the US for the shoot, so we had our photographer, Matt Doyle, shoot Keri on white backgrounds where So-Me's art could easily be incorporated afterward. So-Me's idea for the interior art was to have all these cat characters that were in love with her.

On the other side we have the breakthrough rapper Kid Cudi and Augor, this great grafitti artist in LA. Here's a link to the behind the scenes video/story/gallery and here's a link to the artist's cover process, including all the different illustration revisions we went through.

We presented Kid Cudi with a couple options for artists and he chose Augor. The idea was to find someone who could do dark and playful themes. This was Augor's first magazine work, and he really did a great job. When he came to set, he already had a bunch of sketches and ideas, which we then incorporated and played with while we were shooting.

Some of the interior spreads from the issue:








The Complex team includes:
Tim Leong, Design Director
Anthony Clarke, Designer
Marian Isel Barragan, Photo Editor
Krystal Atwater, Assistant Photo Editor
Matt Doyle, Staff Photographer