Meet the Judges, Part One: Esquire and Field & Stream

This year the six magazine brands represented by our team include some of the heaviest hitters in our industry. All are regular medal winners in the annual SPD awards and run some of the most creative and ambitious art departments in the business...meet the creative leaders of Esquire, ESPN, InStyle, Fortune, Men's Journal and FIeld & Stream. Introducing your 2012 judges...

I'm hoping to see work that's really out there. Not things that try to imitate what's on the stands, but layouts that make me say, "Why haven't I done that yet?"

When I was doing my first internship, at VIBE magazine, I got to meet T.I. one night at a party. Which was great. Not just because he was one of the biggest artists at the time, and I got to hang with him, but the next time I had to layout a page with his image, I knew something that made me feel a little less jealous of his success: I'm taller than he is.

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Sean Johnston, DESIGN DIRECTOR 

A few design surprises as well as consistency, consideration for pacing, tasteful typography, and some energy and attitude.

I didn't do an internship, but my first job out of college was at Timothy Benn Publishing (London) who had a ruthless advertising director who made the sales person with the least sales each month run the length of Fleet Street in their underwear. Although it was very funny, it made me glad to be a designer.