The Fall 2012 issue of @Affinity Magazine (download a free PDF of the publication and read about it on the inside cover) presented some unique challenges.
The issue is about community collaboration and so it was decided that a local artist would do the cover art. Chad Brady was commissioned to do the artwork. Brady painted the well-known mural The Fire in the downtown College Avenue area.
For the cover of @Affinity Magazine, Brady decided to trace the handprints of people in the magazine and the handprints of the health care providers. He made the hands come together to form birds and created a woodcut. The woodcut was then inked (for quite some time) and lifted to the ground. It is a large work and required many helping hands (which of course fit perfectly with the content of the magazine).
Then came the hard part. After many failed attempts to secure a steamroller to print the artwork, it wasn’t looking good. The diligent @Affinity publications coordinator/copywriter, Alison, exhausted all of her efforts and was able to convince someone to steamroll the artwork for us. At last, we were in business. When the paper was peeled from the woodcut and revealed the printed artwork, we saw that all of the challenges were worth it. Now the photographer had to take the prints back to the photography studio and photograph them for the cover art.
After we received the photos of the artwork from the photographer, it was time for Jeff and Michael (the design geniuses) to get to work on it. The next step was a meeting with the @Affinity team and the A2Z Design team. At this meeting we decided on the color scheme and final direction. Finally, after any and all necessary changes were made, the files went to print. The best and most rewarding part was receiving a printed copy and seeing how it all came together. Now you can see too!
This is a detail of the woodcut.
This is the entire woodcut.
Chad Brady (the artist) getting the ink to the perfect consistency.
This is a detail of the woodcut after being inked.
Let the steamrolling begin!
This is the first print.
This is the Fall 2012 @Affinity Magazine cover.
Please watch for the video of how this cover came together. I will try to get it posted later this week, I was informed that there was a problem uploading it. It should be fixed and uploaded by the end of the week so expect to see it soon!
the lowly intern 