Alternative Weeklies

Great illustrated covers from the Santa Fe Reporter

The Santa Fe Reporter is an alternative newsweekly in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The cover designer is Angela Moore, who has been working there since 2003. Formerly the art director, she now works from home doing just the Reporter covers. An editorial illustrator who lived and worked in New York, she draws on that experience to hire great illustrators for the paper's covers. The Reporter has an editorial budget for an entire issue that is less than what most national magazines pay for a spot illustration, and to stay on budget Moore has to create at least one free cover a month. Still, she has managed to turn the Santa Fe Reporter into one of the best venues for illustration in the country, a publication filled with creative and imaginative imagery.

Moore has a great love for poster design, and it shows. Her covers are mini-posters, bold, pointed illustrations with complimentary type. At the same time they work brilliantly as engaging, timely covers, designed to drive circulation and appeal to the Reporter's readership.

Angela Moore's website here.

(Above): October 22, 2008, illustration by Eddie Guy.

(Left): January 10, 2007, illustration by Edel Rodriguez. (Right): April 9. 2007, iIllustration by Luba Lukova.

Angela Moore: "My biggest influence is my experience as a painter and an editorial illustrator. It gives me a good understanding of the artists I work with and how to direct them."

(Left): October 3, 2007, illustration by Dale Stephanos. (Right): March 4, 2009, illustration by John Hersey.

(Left): May 27, 2009, illustration by Whiskey 7. (Right): October 17, 2007, illustration by Brian Stauffer.

Angela Moore: "My cover design philosophy is simple: clean, bold type that harmonizes and doesn't take away from the illustration. I'm a big fan of old Soviet propaganda posters as well as the poster masters from Poland like Stefan Norblin and Tadeusz Gronowski. Their posters perfectly blend image and art in a compelling, dramatic way."

(Left): September 2, 2009, illustration by Charlene Chua. (Right): February 13, 2008, illustration by John Hersey.

Angela Moore: "My idol as far as how to work with illustrators effectively in a way that is inspiring and productive is Steven Heller, the longtime AD at The New York Times Book Review. I did several illustrations for him. He respected the intelligence and conceptual abilities of his illustrators and he never dictated concept. I'm always being told by illustrators how rare it is to work with someone who doesn't over direct, and I think that's why so many work for us even with our small budget."