Images © Entertainment Weekly

On June 10th I received an email from Jennie Chang, the managing art director of ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY magazine, asking if I was available to do a logo for their upcoming Comic-Con Preview insert. We talked terms and price, and I agreed to do it. She told me her design director had found my website, and they loved the logo samples I have up there. They were thinking they wanted something similar to my NEW TEEN TITANS logo:

The hardest and most time-consuming part of a logo design is coming up with an idea that the client likes, so a client who has an idea and knows what they want always makes things easier. I was particularly happy to hear they’d found my website, as I’d just finished moving it to a new web host, which was a hassle, and I had been wondering to myself if it was even worth the effort to keep the site going, so this proof that potential clients were finding it made my day. I drew up a logo idea in pencil, inked it with markers, and sent it in — it’s the first image in this post. We weren’t sure exactly what the cover art by John Cassaday would look like yet, but the rough sketch suggested there might not be enough room for PREVIEW at the top, so I did it as a separate burst that could be placed anywhere it fit. Soon thereafter I received the message:

This is PERFECT.   We all LOVE it.  It’s exactly what we wanted.
And the idea of having the preview be a burst is such a smart idea too.

Music to my ears!

I scanned my sketch and worked out the finished logo in Adobe Illustrator, tracing what I’d done in the sketch, and finessing the details of the telescoping and perspective there. Then I put a new layer under the black line art and added color. They had asked for a color Illustrator version, noting they might change the colors to match the cover art, and I was happy to do that. A design like this always looks better in color, and by doing the color myself I was able to make sure I had all the matching colors linked, to avoid mistakes, and that the trapping (the way the black overprints the colors) was correct.

Here’s the finished faux comic cover with terrific art by John Cassaday and colors by Laura Martin, and it looks like my logo colors were used as sent or nearly so. There was room for PREVIEW at the top after all, and it all works fine in my opinion.

Here’s how it actually appears in the magazine, a clever design that I like a lot. It goes on sale today, if you’re interested in getting a copy. I don’t do a lot of logo designs these days because I can never tell how long the process will take, and it’s hard to schedule the time for it, but this job went smooth as silk, and I’m delighted with the result. Wish they all went so well!