L.A. Weekly Covers by Bill Smith
In design school, I cut my teeth at the local paper, The Daily Collegian. I was art director there for a couple years. Really I wanted to be an illustrator, but I learned that my illustration sucked and I was actually a better designer and manager. It all sort of worked out. I loved the frenzy of putting out the news, and I liked having my own office, but I swore after graduating and moving to Los Angeles that I would not work for another newspaper. This, of course, lead me to…
L.A. Weekly, for those unfamiliar, is a free newsprint alternative tabloid. When I left, it was one of the largest on the continent, in both circulation and page count. I was art director for eight years, from 1995 to 2003, working with editorial as well as marketing. It was a fun and frantic place to be, especially around deadline, and I had the pleasure of working with some of the more talented people I’ll probably ever meet.
Here are a bunch of covers from the hundreds (maybe thousands) I did over the years. There were other great covers done by the associate art directors — Jeff Monzel, Marty Luko, Scott Dorobiala, Jennifer Alden and Dana Collins — but these are just ones I did. Some of the images are a little rough—newsprint doesn’t hold up too well. Apologies to the artists and photographers I couldn’t recall. I’d be remiss in not crediting Howard Rosenberg, Kathleen Clark and Debra DiPaolo who were the photo editors during these years and very influential in the artwork that was created and chosen. The dates are educated guesses. Let the nostalgia begin...
(In reverse chronological order.)
L.A. Weekly, for those unfamiliar, is a free newsprint alternative tabloid. When I left, it was one of the largest on the continent, in both circulation and page count. I was art director for eight years, from 1995 to 2003, working with editorial as well as marketing. It was a fun and frantic place to be, especially around deadline, and I had the pleasure of working with some of the more talented people I’ll probably ever meet.
Here are a bunch of covers from the hundreds (maybe thousands) I did over the years. There were other great covers done by the associate art directors — Jeff Monzel, Marty Luko, Scott Dorobiala, Jennifer Alden and Dana Collins — but these are just ones I did. Some of the images are a little rough—newsprint doesn’t hold up too well. Apologies to the artists and photographers I couldn’t recall. I’d be remiss in not crediting Howard Rosenberg, Kathleen Clark and Debra DiPaolo who were the photo editors during these years and very influential in the artwork that was created and chosen. The dates are educated guesses. Let the nostalgia begin...
(In reverse chronological order.)