The Sandbox

Outside's Toughest Shots

Outside's Toughest Shots

Outside's website has a great series of challenging photos and the behind-the-scenes stories from the photographers who risked life, limb and sanity to get them:
"we were driving 95 miles an hour to avoid getting swallowed by this thing"
"I blew my entire budget on a helicopter and didn't get a single photo because of poor winds... then..."
"I attempted to be smuggled through a Pakistani no-man's-land, wearing a burka, without success"
"I walked 120 miles over four days to get it"
See the shots and read the stories from Antonin Kratochvil, Camille Seaman, Chris Anderson, Christopher LaMarca, Jason Florio, Jeff Hutchens, John Huet, Joshua Paul, Mark Fisher, Matthieu Paley, Nicky Bonne, Paolo Marchesi, Philipp Engelhorn and Ryan Pyle here.

(Supercell storm photo by Camille Seaman.)
Complex: Cover Tests

Complex: Cover Tests

Tim Leong, the DD at Complex, walks us through their Oct/Nov cover:
The cover features the rap group The Clipse, who have a new album just about to drop. To make the cover really special we collaborated with KAWS, one of the biggest street artists of all time.
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Gail Anderson on The Evolution of a Poster

Gail Anderson on The Evolution of a Poster

Gail Anderson, SpotCo Creative Director of Design, has a great audio slide show at The New York Times, talking through the evolution of the SpotCo campaign for the revival of Ragtime.
Definitely a must-listen as she walks us through several possible directions and the thinking behind their final choice. Always good to know about all the work that goes into making a final product, so much of which the those of us not on the project never hear about...
Command D

Command D

Step one: select an amazing photo.
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Rebranding LATINA

Rebranding LATINA

Say the word Latina, and what do many people think of? Women like Jennifer Lopez, Penelope Cruz, Salma Hayek and Eva Mendes. But Latinas are also as diverse as Cameron Diaz, Raquel Welch, Rita Hayworth, and even Wonder Woman herself, Lynda Carter. The point is, there is no "typical" Latina. They are an eclectic group of women and their diversity became an editorial focal point for our redesign. … MORE
Tribute to Blueprint Magazine 2005-2007

Tribute to Blueprint Magazine 2005-2007


Blueprint from SPD Videos on Vimeo.

From Deb Bishop, the former DD at Blueprint:
This is fun little movie in fast motion (we were always in a hurry) of the Blueprint team creating the February '08 cover in the Starrett Lehigh building. Little did we know this would be the last cover we did, ever. Blueprint was the most fun, perplexing, frustrating, yet rewarding project I have ever been involved in. It's been a year since it folded. I just wanted to say thanks and I miss you all. I'm really proud of what we did.

Sarah Humphreys, Cybele Grandjean, Lisa The, Jamie Prokell, Katie Hatch, Page Marchese Norman, Elizabeth Graves, Shane Powers, Rebecca Robertson, Scott Horne, Rachel Boyle, Sarah Conroy, Johannah Masters, Bora Chang, Shira Savada, Denise Clappi, Duane Stapp, Sydney Applegate, Sarah Rutledge, Valerie Rains, Petra Gugielmetti, Heloise Goodman, Mary Cahill, Johnny Miller, Amy Wilkins, Matthew Axe, Tom Prince, and everyone on staff. We only did 8 issues (or was it 9?) but those 8 were "effin" brilliant.

I know you have all gone on to do wonderful things and I wanted to wish you all happiness with your future endeavors in the New Year and beyond. Let's have a reunion.

Cheers
XO Deb
If you have content (big or small) that you think would be great for The Sandbox; behind-the-scenes stories, the process of a design, illo, photo, logo, typography...really anything about the way we put a magazine or website(!) together...forward it to Brandon at TIPS@SPD.org.
What Is This?

What Is This?

These are all common elements that you can find at a hardware store or drug store.
It's also something else.
It's a bomb. And it can be brought on a commercial airline undetected.

Here at Best Life we were developing a story on how our airports post-9/11 are not much safer than before. Ripe with whistle-blowers and what not it was damn interesting...and damn scary. Searching the text for visual directions, one of the most intriguing parts was about a collection of common elements that one could easily get through security and assemble into a bomb on a commercial airliner. Much more interesting than the obligatory spooky picture of the whistle-blower in an airport, right? So we called Dan Winters.

I recently had a chance to catch Dan on the phone to talk about the project of assembling a bomb: fascintating, funny.....and terrifying.
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