Charles Apple

Here’s wishing the happiest of VizEds birthdays to John Garcia, special sections editor of The Ventura County Star.
A ‘JohnGar’ self-portrait.
From his Flickr feed.
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Yeah, I had to look it up: The Ventura County Star is in Camarillo Calif., just northwest of L.A.

John has been at the Star more than ten years. He was Assistant Business Editor for nearly six years before becoming a designer and copy editor in 2004. After two-and-a-half years of that, John became Special Sections Editor in June 2006.

John is a 1989 graduate of California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, Calif., maybe five or six miles east of Camarillo.

John caught my attention a couple of years ago at SND/Orlando when he went around to damn near everyone in the room, taking photos of himself with various folks. Never mind that a lot of the photos are cut off or crooked. It’s a lot of fun to scroll through them at Flickr.

How many of these people can you name, off the top of your head?

All photos by John Garcia.
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At SND/Boston last year, he took a bunch of photos during the casino night afterparty. Here’s a warning: There may be some good blackmail material there, folks!

He’s been kind enough to allow me to use some of his material here in the blog. Thanks, John!

In addition to photography, John also enjoys collecting Disney pins. Of which there seems to be an endless supply:

A few samples of John’s work:

Find John’s NewsPageDesigner gallery here.

John shares a birthday with politicians Henry Kissinger and Hubert Humphrey, musician André Lauren Benjamin of Outkast, comedian Adam Carolla, actors Joseph Fiennes, Christopher Lee and Vincent Price and writer Harlan Ellison.

Plus, today is the Body Painting Arts Festival. Seriously.

Best wishes, John, for a happy birthday!

A couple of follow-up notes regarding speakers you saw at SND/Boston last October…

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Dan Zedek, our host for SND/Boston, writes:

We’ve just updated the sndboston web site to include a downloadable copy of Robert Newman’s presentation on brainstorming design. It’s a bit (OK, a lot, late) but it’s great stuff from a guy who art directed everything from Entertainment Weekly to the Village Voice to Vibe to Real Simple.

You can find it here. It’s about the third one down.

Or, just walk in the front door of the SND/Boston site and wander around. There is still a lot of interesting stuff posted and linked to.

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Along these same lines, the Mercury News last week published a book review-slash-interview with our keynote speaker in Boston, publication designer Chip Kidd.

Q: Let’s address a cheerier subject: You designed “Peanuts: The Art of Charles M. Schulz,” but you didn’t gussy it up. The primitivism of Schulz’s early work came through.

A: I wanted the reader to experience the Peanuts book exactly as I did while putting it together — as if they’re sifting through his personal papers and scrapbooks and records, etc. I wanted it to be very, very personal. Not in any sensational way, but in the way that the strip itself is so uniquely affecting and yet so universal.

Q: Of the books you’ve designed, do you have a favorite?

A: There are too many at this point to choose a favorite. I would narrow it down to books that I have written/conceived and books by authors I greatly respect “” John Updike, Cormac McCarthy, David Sedaris …

The Peanuts book metioned by the reviewer, John Mark Eberhart, is truly a gem.

I recommend it even more highly than the recent Schulz biography. You can pick up the paperback version for only $13.22 at Amazon. 

The new book that formed the peg for this story?

The Learners by Chip Kidd. Available from Amazon for $17.16.

Find the Q&A in last week’s Merc.

Not only was Billy Kulpa hired, today (Monday) is his first day of work at The Rockford Register-Star in Rockford, Ill., where he interned in 2006.

Billy receives a hug from an unidentified admirer
at SND/Boston. Photo by Ryan Hildebrandt.
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His new boss — AME Chris Soprych — writes:

Billy will have the time of his life on a six day, seven night cruise down the Rock River where he’ll get do whatever he wants. All the positions in my department are tailored to the individuals talents and developmental needs. Billy will be starting with some video editing and page design, he will also be given a lot of time developing interactive templates, standard operating procedures and training.

The focus for our newsroom in 2008 will be training in the multimedia arts. I’m developing an multimedia “boot camp” for the graphics department and the rest of the newsroom. Participants will have an individualized personal improvement plan; they’ll have “home work,” and they’ll be expected to help train other staffers.

Wow. Sounds like fun!

Plus, I know from experience that Soapy is a wonderful teacher and the editor in Rockford, Linda Grist-Cunningham, is a supportive leader. Billy couldn’t have possibly lucked out any better.

Billy first came to our attention as a finalist in the legendary first-ever “Intern” contest in Orlando in 2006. In that contest, he won a 2007 summer internship at The Orlando Sentinel. Also at SND/Orlando, Billy earned a 2007 summer fellowship at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg.

Billy shares his experience over the past couple
years with the students who attended SND/
Boston in October. Photo by Steve Dorsey.
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Last spring, Billy graduated from Northern Illinois University, served his internship and fellowship and then was invited back to Poynter to work a few more months this fall.

Some of the icons you’ve seen gracing centerpiece stories at the Poynter web site this year were Billy’s pieces. For example:

And here are a few examples of Billy’s print work:

See more at NewsPageDesigner.You can also find more on Billy’s personal web site.

Congratulations, Billy, on the new gig and on your return to Illinois!