June 2015 Archives

Barack Obama: Portraits of a President

Barack Obama: Portraits of a President is a new Kickstarter project created by art director (and longtime SPD friend and colleague) Richard Baker. He'll be using the funding to sponsor an event that will feature some noted illustrators (Edel Rodriguez and Steve Brodner, among others) and moderator Steven Heller, all discussing how Barack Obama has been portrayed visually by illustrators. It's a great project and promises to be an historic evening.

Sign up to be a supporter of Barack Obama: Portraits of a President here.

(Illustration by Hanoch Piven)

1970s Illustrated Covers of Travel & Leisure Art Directed by Norman Hotz

[Editor's Note]: Norman Hotz began his art direction career in the late 1960s working for Allen Hurlburt and Will Hopkins at Look magazine. He moved to Travel & Leisure in 1970, where he worked as the deputy to Frank Zachary, and helped create the magazine's iconic logo and design. When Zachary left after 10 issues, the then-25 year old Hotz was named Travel & Leisure's art director. He continued and expanded on Zachary's work, creating a remarkable, award-winning series of illustrated covers and inside pages. After leaving T&L in 1976, Hotz went on to a distinguished career designing and art directing a series of magazines that included Panorama, Families, and Reader's Digest.

For the past 14 years Hotz has worked as a cartoon editor for Reader's Digest, and continues to work on design projects. In this second part of his magazine design memoir for SPD, Hotz showcases a collection of brilliant illustrated covers of Travel & Leisure, and shares some background on their creation. Don't miss the first part of this memoir, which includes Hotz's memories of working with art director Frank Zachary. This interview was conducted and compiled by Linda Rubes.

(Above): September 1974 cover of Travel & Leisure, art director: Norman Hotz, illustration: Paul Davis.
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Remembering Art Director Frank Zachary, by Norman Hotz

[Editor's Note]: Legendary magazine editor and art director Frank Zachary passed away on June 12 at the age of 101. Zachary was the art director, photography director, and managing editor of Holiday, the beautiful, stylish 1950s-early 60s travel magazine. He later worked as art director of Travel & Leisure and editor of Town and Country. In 1987 Zachary was honored with the SPD Herb Lubalin Award "to acknowledge continuing excellence in publication design."

Zachary's deputy art director in the early 1970s at Travel & Leisure was Norman Hotz. After a year at the magazine, Zachary left to become editor of Town and Country, and Hotz took over as art director. Hotz's award-winning stint at T&L was followed by a distinguised career redesigning and art directing numerous other magazines, and he continues as a consulting art director for cartoons at Reader's Digest. 

Hotz shared with SPD his memories of working with Zachary at Travel & Leisure. We also have a never-before collected set of all 10 of Zachary's Travel & Leisure covers.

This is the first part of a two-part remembrance by Hotz of his years at T&L. Stay tuned for part two in the near future. The interviews with Hotz were compiled and edited by Linda Rubes.

(Above): Travel & Leisure, June-July 1971. Art director: Frank Zachary, illustration: George Giusti.
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The Gala Photo Booth Pics are in!