Illustrated icons I create each issue for the cover and some inside pages. Sometimes the text on the curves comes easily, sometimes it requires a few rounds of brainstorming with our editors on Slack.
Orange Coast magazine — December 2017
Vans on the cover!
Orange Coast magazine — December 2017
Final spread for the Vans portion of the feature, a timeline from the company’s first store in Anaheim to its sparkling new headquarters in Costa Mesa. Photographed by John Cizmas in Downtown Santa Ana.
#WIP
Orange Coast magazine — December 2017
Challenge extended to the most buzzed-about bartenders in Orange County: make us a cocktail inspired by expensive baubles from local jewelers. The genesis of the idea was a cocktails and manicures photo shoot featured on So Cosmo, a manufactured reality show that ran on E! earlier this year. Photographs by John Cizmas.
Orange Coast magazine — August 2017
Redesign! Introducing Brandon Grotesque as our new sans font. We’re pairing it with Mercury and a few spots of Garage Gothic. Photographed by Priscilla Iezzi at Restaurant Marin in Costa Mesa.
Orange Coast magazine — August 2017
New section openers. Garage Gothic with a custom ampersand.
Coast magazine — August 2017
I was inspired to pitch this photo feature after moving to an Eichler home in Orange last year. See, the homes look cool from the street. But they look really spectacular when you turn on all the lights at night and photograph them from the atriums and back yards.
Orange Coast magazine — April 2017
Orange Coast magazine — April 2017
Beautiful food from Mix Mix in Santa Ana, photograph by Priscilla Iezzi. Design kept simple.
Orange Coast magazine — February 2017
This is actually a stock photo, extended from vertical to horizontal in Photoshop. The headline is Neutra Display with a little texture and shading added. I created the banner for the deck, and the burst graphic used throughout the feature is from Creative Market.
Orange Coast magazine — December 2016
Favorite project of 2016! I commissioned Karen Cox to create coloring pages based on Orange County TV shows. It all started as a group message on Instagram by the Orange Coast art department. “Check out this Australian magazine that makes their own coloring books.” “We should make one!” “That would be so rad, O.C. coloring book.” So I started working with our production director, who sourced rough paper for just that section. Then I worked with our sales team, which sold a custom coloring page to an advertiser to cover expenses. Six months later, there it was. One of the Housewives regrammed us, so it was a social media hit. And we posted printable pages online for a contest, pulling traffic to our website. Firing on all cylinders!
Orange Coast magazine — August 2016
Photographed by Priscilla Iezzi at Jinny’s Pizzeria at 4th Street Market in Santa Ana. Lettering by Alex Choura.
Orange Coast magazine — May 2016
Illustration by Drake Brodahl. We had big plans for this one! Was supposed to be one of a series of four. Alas, the powers-that-be were skittish about permissions. Printed with a metallic touch plate.
Orange Coast magazine — February 2016
Photographed by Priscilla Iezzi in the studio at Orange Coast
Orange Coast magazine — December 2015
Photographed by Priscilla Iezzi at Kang Ho-Dong Baekjeong in Buena Park, CA.
Photographs by Priscilla Iezzi, illustrations by Kendyll Hillegas
Orange Coast magazine — August 2015
Photographed by Anne Watson at 4th Street Market in Santa Ana
Orange Coast magazine — July 2015
Photographed by Priscilla Iezzi in our associate editor’s community pool. Giselle Piña is the model.
Orange Coast magazine — May 2015
Photographed by Priscilla Iezzi at the Balboa Beach & Tennis Club
Orange Coast — May 2015
Orange Coast magazine — May 2015
A feature about Jeff Sotzing, who is Johnny Carson’s nephew and also responsible for maintaining the integrity of Carson’s legacy. Photo by Kyle Monk in front of curtains sourced from IKEA and Bed, Bath & Beyond. Where the steamer fell short, the smudge tool in Photoshop took over.
Orange Coast magazine — February 2015
Chef Roy Choi was photographed on location at The Line Hotel in Los Angeles by Kyle Monk.
Orange Coast magazine — February 2015
We had custom stamps created for the headline and many of the design elements. Photographs by Priscilla Iezzi.
Orange Coast — January 2015
Orange Coast magazine — December 2014
Photographed for us by David Johnson in NYC, so I was not at the shoot. Bummer! But the lettering is by yours truly.
Orange Coast magazine — December 2014
John (we’re on a first name basis, right?) has a “golden ticket” in his teeth from the the opening day of Disneyland. More lettering by me, with a little WIld Pen font in the upper left. It’s a great handwriting font with lots of glyphs for character variations.
Orange Coast magazine — December 2014
So. Many. Donuts. Yes, we sampled a lot of donuts. It’s a tough job sometimes. Photos were all shot by staff photographer Priscilla Iezzi in our studio. Great little video here.
Orange Coast magazine — August 2014
Lettering by Lauren Hom. Photograph by Priscilla Iezzi.
Orange Coast — June 2014
Photograph by Priscilla Iezzi. Styling by Anne C. Sterling. Font is modified Studio Neon.
Orange Coast magazine — June 2014
Illustrations by Pete Ryan, who always provides more awesome sketch ideas than we can possibly use.
Orange Coast — June 2014
Orange Coast — June 2014
This is John Force, a drag racing legend. I actually ran into him at the airport a few days after this issue was published, so I gave him a copy. Photograph by Sean Teegarden, who always goes above and beyond.
Orange Coast magazine — May 2014
Illustration by Anderson Design Group, who also created this travel cover for us. UPDATE: This cover received a merit award from the Society of Publication Designers. Yay!
Orange Coast magazine — December 2013
Priscilla Iezzi took these photographs with the express purpose of pairing them with watercolor paintings I created.
Orange Coast magazine — October 2013
Fabulous spider web lettering created by Dan Hoopert. Illustration by Polly Becker. It was a transatlantic and transcontinental collaboration! The feature is about the writer’s chance encounter with a serial killer, not realized until decades after it happened. Read the story here — it will send shivers up your spine!
Orange Coast magazine — August 2013
Illustrations by Hong Yi, an artist based in Malaysia who doesn’t just play with food, she also creates wildly inventive and complicated large-scale portraits out of things like flowers and tea bags.
Orange Coast Magazine – May 2013
Lettering by Brian Levy. Hope to work with him again soon.
Orange Coast Magazine – May 2013
Orange Coast — May 2013
Illustration by Keith Negley. Font is Ugocranis.
Orange Coast magazine — May 2013
A playful collaboration by the artists of Backhausdance, photographer Priscilla Iezzi, and illustrator Oksana Badrak. Pinch me!
Orange Coast Magazine – April 2013
Orange Coast Magazine – April 2013
Orange Coast Magazine – April 2013
Orange Coast Magazine – March 2013
Illustration by Jason Holley. Good stuff.
Orange Coast Magazine – March 2013
Orange Coast Magazine – March 2013
Orange Coast Magazine – February 2013
Yummy photo by our own Priscilla Iezzi. Soho Taco Truck, in case you’re wondering.
Orange Coast Magazine – February 2013
Illustration by the great Anita Kunz. She was so easy to work with, great concepts, turned in the final early. No idea if she was making a Zoolander reference here, but I happened to be watching it the weekend the sketch came in. I was too afraid to ask her in case it was unintentional and then she wouldn’t want to go to final with it. Type and flourishes are a customization of Reina.
Orange Coast Magazine – February 2013
Illustration by John Ueland, whom I have the pleasure of working with on a monthly basis.
Orange Coast Magazine – January 2013
Illustration by Matt Mahurin. Kind of knocks the wind out of you. M is composed of tiny guns by our illustration intern Thinh Nguyen.
Orange Coast Magazine – December 2012
Orange Coast Magazine – December 2012
I love how this turned out. Lettering by Kyle Miller — hope to work with him again soon.
Orange Coast Magazine – November 2012
Gretchen Rossi in our studio, me just out of frame holding a fan.
Orange Coast Magazine – October 2012
The things you can find on Etsy… Victoria Alvarez did a great job on the custom glasses for this guy.
Orange Coast Magazine – September 2012
Photographs by Priscilla Iezzi. This left-hand page was a cover try that was too good to toss.
Orange Coast Magazine – August 2012
Click below to see the alternate cover that didn’t make the cut — I think everyone liked the design, but the understated tone of it just didn’t work with the wording we wanted. I’m proud to say I executed the design above myself, from manipulating the type to creating the dimensional sticker look. If I had a bigger budget, I’m sure my instinct would have been to hire a lettering artist plus someone to create the sticker.
Orange Coast Magazine – August 2012
Opening photo by Ron Stoner, a great surf photographer who disappeared off the face of the Earth in the 60s. Luckily, Surfer Magazine let me run a few of his photos (Stoner was a staffer for them, so they own the rights).
Orange Coast Magazine – July 2012
I worked with UK illustrator Brett Ryder to get these illustrations. Type was sourced from the great Photo-Lettering website. Most of the photos are by Priscilla Iezzi. Aren’t they great? Those croissants were delish.
Orange Coast Magazine – May 2012
This photo was free, yes free, because some kind soul offered it up on Flickr Creative Commons. I could have sent a photographer out for something new, but sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time. I sourced a lot of lettering artists and vintage book covers to create this headline.
Orange Coast Magazine – March 2012
I worked with Anderson Design Group out of Nashville to create this cover. It illustrates the Lone Cypress near Pebble Beach on the central CA coast. There are lots of travel covers out there, and we wanted to create something that would stand out, that readers would want to keep on their coffee tables for awhile.
Orange Coast Magazine – December 2011
That’s right, 50 dishes! And somewhere along the way I decided that our readers would want to see photos of all 50. Who doesn’t love a good picture menu? Many thanks to Priscilla Iezzi, John Cizmas and Jessica Boone for hustling to get all the photos taken.
Orange Coast Magazine – September 2011
Yummy photograph by Priscilla Iezzi.
Orange Coast Magazine – August 2011
Orange Coast Magazine – June 2011
Lots of pool toys to blow up for this one! And it helps when the landscape designers are beautiful and willing to model — many thanks to John and Chris Shippy of Geoscape Design for making my job easier.
Orange Coast Magazine – May 2011
That’s my car! Isn’t it adorable? I used Metroscript by Michael Doret for the headline.
Orange Coast Magazine – May 2011
Orange Coast Magazine – March 2011
I pitched this idea and came up with a layout chock full of ideas I’d want to read about. Did you know the House Hunters people typically already own the home they’re pretending to choose? I can’t believe the OC couple was allowed to talk about it with us. UPDATE: This package was nominated for Reader Service at CRMA, a combined art/edit award. Yay!
Orange Coast Magazine – December 2010
I watched Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette to get inspired for this layout. Mmm… Photographs by Kevin J. Miyazaki.
Orange Coast Magazine – November 2010
Illustrations by Catherine Lepage of Montreal. Plus, a few items written by Yours Truly. That’s right, I string a few sentences together now and then.
Orange Coast Magazine – May 2010
Some unexpected rain forced us to move this beach shoot inside. Great little illustrations by Jon Keegan. Opener photo by Jason Wallis. I used Kitti Casual by Jason Walcott for the display type.
Orange Coast Magazine – April 2010
Yep, backyard chickens have made it to OC. Great photo by Plush Studios. I created the headline treatment from a bunch of stock photo and illustration sources.
Orange Coast magazine — December 2009
Matthew Morrison of Glee fame, photographed by Brian Bowen Smith. These shots happened when the publicist left the room for a minute and Matthew decided to have a little fun.
Orange Coast Magazine – November 2009
I was lucky that Roxy had some great photos on hand for Lisa Andersen, their big-time sponsored surfer. Headline treatment created by combining and tweaking a bunch of stock illustration elements.
Orange Coast Magazine – October 2009
Beautiful photos by Hacob in Pasadena. It took a few scouting trips to come up with just the right dish for this cover, and I’m not complaining one bit.
Orange Coast Magazine – October 2009
Orange Coast magazine — September 2009
Photograph by Jason Wallis. Lettering by Craig Ward. Cover model is the actress Kayla Ewell.
Orange Coast Magazine – July 2009
Find four OC-based surfers to put on a cover. Easy, right? Hah! This month I learned just how deep surf culture is in Orange County. I mean, the high schools have surf teams. So I couldn’t put just any surfers on the cover, they had to be legit. Photographed by Jason Wallis at River Jetties during a rare break in June Gloom. The little plane/banner was a last-minute tweak I added.
Orange Coast Magazine – June 2009
Not an Airstream, but a Silver Streak. This one is owned by Steve Jones of 1.7 Ocean fame. I used a combo of the typefaces Hood Ornament and Top Speed for the headline.
Orange Coast Magazine – June 2009
We channeled Condé Nast Traveler with this feature about two new resorts in SoCal. Gazillionaires only, please. Seriously, they use that Bentley to shuttle guests to their rooms. Photographs by Kevin J. Miyazaki.
Orange Coast Magazine – May 2009
Photograph by Ralph Palumbo. The owners of this house weren’t even home during this shoot, but they let us have the run of the place. I styled the model (that’s my Tarina Tarantino bracelet!) and added flowers to fill in the gaps. Those topiaries? Really just one, rotated and photographed twice. I let the model take it home. The poor pup is a shelter dog who hasn’t been adopted yet. He was left at the shelter anonymously so no one knew his name. He’s been newly christened “Riley” but didn’t respond to it no matter how enthusiastically we said it.
Orange Coast Magazine – October 2008
Photograph by James Wojcik.
Orange Coast Magazine – June 2008
I got the job! I love this layout so I wish it had been published. Alas, it’s just a test layout to prove I have what it takes for the about-to-relaunch Orange Coast. Stock photo for the opener with some fancy Photoshop manipulation on the headline type. I wasn’t happy with the pacing of some of the small bottles in the sidebars, so I researched and wrote a couple of new entries to create a better flow.
Las Vegas Life – April 2008
Goodbye, Las Vegas Life… I’d like to think I went out with a bang on this fashion layout. I worked with Stockholm-based illustrator Cecelia Carlstedt. Las Vegas has all the biggest names in fashion but they’re not all willing to share their product with little ol’ Las Vegas Life. What to do? Get hi-res runway shots and illustrate them in a fantasy world. I love how it turned out.
Las Vegas Life – November 2006
Photographs by Kevin J. Miyazaki. This was an idea I had that was so perfectly-suited for Las Vegas. It became a standing feature on the back page when we did a redesign.
Milwaukee Magazine – October 2005
I hope Milwaukeeans totally get this. There’s a new public market downtown, visible from the freeway to any commuters. There’s a big “Milwaukee Public Market” neon sign, similar to the one at Seattle’s Pike Place Market. Thing is, I didn’t have any source letters for B, S, O or F. That S was killer, I tell you! Took me about two solid days to create a believable curve and depth. I could have removed the contrail, but I kind of like it.
Milwaukee Magazine – August 2005
I sourced these twigs in my back yard. Photograph by Kevin J. Miyazaki.
Milwaukee Magazine – January 2005
Shh… Don’t tell Marshall Field’s I bought this tank top with silver paillettes and returned it after the shoot. No harm done, right?
Milwaukee Magazine – August 2003
This cover is a low-budget wonder. The Mini is borrowed from the dealership. The model is our intern. Hair done by Yours Truly. Target tank top. Map made at the office, taped together and folded. Shoot location is behind Quad/Graphics, our parent company. I love the cross-processed final result.
Milwaukee Magazine – July 2003
Posting a classic. I just love the simplicity of this. The star was sourced from a coworker’s old piano workbook — they just don’t sell stars like that anymore. I created the corner banner before the benefit of stock image websites where I could have just typed in ‘banner’ and had my pick of dozens. The file prep of this one was tricky — we wanted the star to look like a real gold star so we needed a touch plate of PMS with black laid down on top to create the ridges. Cross fingers, et voila, it printed great!
Milwaukee Magazine – June 2002
Posting a classic. Photograph by Kevin Miyazaki, main design by Sharon Nelson but thoroughly a group effort. I tried several color combos on this one until we arrived at just the right mix.