Charles Apple

Let’s take a moment to wish the happiest of VizEds birthdays to Billy Kulpa, a multimedia artist with the Register Star in Rockford, Ill. Billy turns 25 today.

A quick quiz… This is: a) John Mayer, recording his
next album. b) A file photo of Keith Richards, before
he had enough money to indulge himself. c) Hannah
Montana’s songwriter, figuring out who he’s going
to rip off next. d) None of the above. Answer: It’s
Billy Kulpa last summer during his Poynter
Fellowship. Photo by Steve Dorsey, who posted
some of the damnest photos last summer.
—

Billy started his new job at the Register Star on Jan. 7. As luck would have it, though, that very afternoon, a tornado struck the Rockford area. Billy dashed to the scene and took some video that ended up the Register Star’s biggest online eyeball-grabber that day.

And that, boys and girls, is how you impress the hell out of your new boss.

Two photos Billy shot after a tornado struck
Rockford on Jan. 7 — his first day at work.
—

This is actually Billy’s second tour in Rockford; he interned on the Register Star copy desk back in 2006 while he was in school at nearby Northern Illinois University.

While at NIU, Billy redesigned the student paper, Northern Star, and served as design editor. He also finished in the top three in the first-ever “The Intern” contest in SND/Orlando in 2006.

He graduated last spring and then served a summer fellowship at the Poynter Institute, a summer internship at The Orlando Sentinel and then worked as a new media intern at Poynter through the end of the year.

A few samples of Billy’s print work:

See more in his NewsPageDesigner gallery and on his personal web site.

Billy shares a birthday with John Grimwade of Condé Nast, singer Steven Patrick Morrissey, supermodel Naomi Campbell, actors Paul Winfield and Sir Laurence Olivier and writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Plus, today is Buy a Musical Instrument Day. Seriously.

…Which reminds us: That photo of Billy playing guitar, above? When Steve Dorsey took that picture, he also shot this nice portrait. Of Billy’s feet:

There ya go: A rock star in the making.

Best wishes, Billy, for a happy birthday!

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 7:27 am and is filed under Graphics, Happy birthday, Innovative ideas, Newspapers, VizEds Blog, Web news design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.