Charles Apple

Here’s wishing a happy VizEds birthday to Brandon Stuck of Chicago’s RedEye, who turns 25 today.

Geez, dude. Speaking of ‘redeye’…
—

Brandon worked downstairs at Link for about six months. That was just long enough to do two things: a) Wow readers with our new youth-oriented tab, and b) Win an SND award for a portfolio of his work.

Naturally, he was then snapped up by those hungry weasels at RedEye. Oh, hi, Chris Courtney. I didn’t see you walk in.

Brandon is not only one of the more talented cover design guys you’ll ever meet, he’s also a pretty funny dude — despite his suffering from occasional terminal shyness. I asked his girlfriend — Miranda Mulligan, a superb graphics reporter for The Virginian-Pilot — why he never came up to chat with me. “He’s afraid of you,” she told me.

Afraid of me? How can anybody possibly be afraid of me? Does he think I’m going to sit on him or something?

Brandon apparently has a similar issue at RedEye. His official RedEye bio calls him “overexcited mumbles.” What the hell does that mean?

Read that bio — as short as it is — here.

Brandon, on Christmas Day 2006, gives my
daughter, Elizabeth, tips on how to use her
new digital camera. Charming, huh? But
then when she tries to take a picture of him,
he goes all Gene Simmons. That’s the photo
at the top of this post.
—

One of the world’s worst-kept secrets? Brandon gave Miranda a ring a while back. They plan to get married in March.

Here are a few samples of Brandon’s energy-driven cover design.

Find the rest of Brandon’s portfolio here.

He does nearly all of his own illustration work — that Harry Potter cover, for example: That’s Brandon, mimicing the book illustration style. Here’s a piece of line art from Brandon’s college days at Ball State:

Brandon shares a birthday with Raleigh News & Observer editor Michelle Valenzuela, singers Madonna and Vanessa Carlton, actor Robert Culp and — believe it or not — both Frank Gifford and Kathie Lee Gifford.

Best wishes, Brandon! Congratulations on your engagement!

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 16th, 2007 at 5:24 am and is filed under Happy birthday, News design, Newspapers, VizEds Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.