Charles Apple

Let’s pause a moment to wish the happiest of VizEds birthdays today to the founder and CEO of VizEds, Mr. Robb Montgomery. Robb turns 43 today.

Robb Montgomery in the lights of San Francisco.
Photo by Matt Perry of the San Francisco Chronicle.
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I first met Robb in 1996 when I joined the staff of the Chicago Tribune. During his four years at the Trib, Robb art-directed section fronts for The Arts, Friday, Good Eating, Transportation and Your Money sections. Twice, he won awards from SND for his work in the KidNews section.

He was a designer. I was an artist. I didn’t get a chance to work with him a lot, but I admired his work and the patience and class he showed under some relatively trying circumstances.

He left not long afterward, joining Sun Publications, a group of small dailies in the Chicago suburbs. Robb redesigned the papers, earned yet another SND award for his efforts and pretty much made a huge name for himself — as a visual thinker in general; for his use of photos, in particular.

After nearly five years with Sun Publications, Robb made the leap back downtown — this time, to The Chicago Sun-Times, where he designed page one of the big tab, as well as the Red Streak tab. He was a major player in the Sun-Times‘ successful 2003 redesign.

Rob won the prestigious Peter Lisagor Award for Exemplary Journalism in 2004. This is a big, big deal for Chicago-area journalists.

Robb teaches in Los Angeles in 2005.
Photo by Mark Friesen.
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In March 2004, Robb created VisualEditors.com.

It’s difficult to remember what life was like before VizEds. There was no bulletin board site devoted to visual journalism and to the continuting education of visual journalists. Listserves from SND and Poynter were underutilized. Comments fields at the excellent NewsPageDesigner were fun to read, but were organized by designer and specific page.

The need for a real discussion forum seems so obvious now. But Robb was the only one who filled that need.

Nothing but the finest fashions for Robb
Montgomery. Here he is earlier this year at
SND/Stockholm. Photo by Lars Pyrds.
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Flash-forward three years: VizEds now has more than 5,000 registered users worldwide. Un-freakin’-believable.

And I have to tell you: It’s been an enormous honor to play a small role in the success of Robb’s baby. I suspect Steve Cavendish and Denise Covert and the rest of the VizEds moderation team will say the same.

Meanwhile, Robb left the Sun-Times at the end of 2005 and struck out on his own. He’s now an internationally-known news consultant. No longer specializing in tab design and photojournalism packages, Robb is one of the more-respected consultants out there for issues like new media, interactive design and other high-end, high-tech stuff that boggles my mind.

Robb at the Kremlin in Moscow in 2006.
Photo from Robb’s Flickr feed.
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Just this year, so far, Robb has consulted or taught in: Silicon Valley, Canada, Malaysia, Dubai, Egypt, Latvia, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden and the U.K. And I’m quite sure I’m leaving something out.

And it’s only September!

Find Robb’s personal web page here.

Robb plays guitar in the lobby in Orlando last fall.
Holding the music for him is Jackie Wu from
Singapore. Photo by William Couch.
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And as if all that isn’t enough: Robb is a gifted musician, too. In 2002, he recorded a really wonderful CD, Lullabies & Little Ditties. Read more at his music home page.Or, buy a copy at CD Baby.

Robb shares a birthday with entertainment greats Joey Heatherton, Sam Neill and the late Clayton Moore, who played The Lone Ranger back in the 1950s. Hiyo, Silver!

Unless I’ve done my backwards math incorrectly, Robb was born in 1964. The No. 1 song in the U.S. on that date was House of the Rising Sun by The Animals. Read into that what you will.

In addition, today is National Cream-Filled Donut Day. Seriously.

Robb parties with Jonathon Berlin (left) and
Nina Mehta (right) in London this summer.
Photo by Matt Mansfield.
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Happy birthday, Robb. Thanks for all you’ve done for visual journalism.

Most of all, though, thanks for being such a swell friend.

Best wishes!

This entry was posted on Friday, September 14th, 2007 at 5:24 am and is filed under Happy birthday, News design, Newspapers, Visual Editors, VizEds Blog, Workshops. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.