For the cover, I wanted something that really gave the reader a sense of the 1970’s. Bright, colorful and dreamy—but of course with a overwhelming vibe of Jimi and Maui. While searching for art I came across this amazing piece by the famous surf illustrator Rick Rietveld. It was the perfect image for what I had previously envisioned—almost as if he had illustrated it for me. Sometimes, things just work out perfect like that. I contacted Rick and was ecstatic when he agreed to let us use his piece for our cover story. I wanted to keep the cover lines as simple and unobtrusive as possible, so that they weren’t distracting from the illustration. When you get work like this, you just have to let the art do the talking, if you know what I mean.

You can see more of Rick’s work here or purchase here. I’ve been a big fan of Rick ever since I bought his famous “Ukulele-playing Einstein” t-shirt in grade school. It has always been a favorite of mine, and to this day I still have that t-shirt.

As always, you can view more of the issue here as well.

As always, you can read more here.

Be sure to read more here.

As always, be sure to read more from the issue here.

As always, you can see more of the issue here.

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Maui Newspaper Publishes 3D Issue
Featuring over 100 3D images, MauiTime’s Best of Maui may be the first of its kind

WAILUKU, HAWAII – In what may be an industry first, MauiTime newspaper has published an issue featuring more than 100 3D photos. The 80-page issue–the annual Best of Maui, which highlights the island’s top people, places and businesses in a number of categories–hit stands July 22.

“We believe we’ve created the world’s largest 3D newspaper; we haven’t found any other publication that’s done it on this scale,” said Publisher Tommy Russo. “In that sense it was a leap of faith, but I’m proud of our team for pulling it off.”

To achieve the 3D effect, MauiTime’s sales and production departments utilized a special 3D camera, which produced red-blue anaglyph images. Images were then tweaked and fine-tuned by designers. “It was a lot of work, definitely much more than a normal issue,” said Art Director Chris Skiles. “We were learning this process as we went.”

Prior to distribution, 3D glasses were hand-inserted into all 18,000 copies of the paper to allow readers to view the 3D images.

“Usually the layout and images in the paper support the words, but for this issue it was really the other way around,” said Editor Jacob Shafer. “Of course we hope people will read what we wrote, but we know the main focus will be on the visuals.”

On the sales side, Russo said it was exciting to bring something different to his clients. “We’ve seen big publications sell 3D to major companies,” said Russo. “But we were selling 3D to little mom and pops–yogurt stands and Mexican restaurants.”

The 3D issue marks another step forward for MauiTime, which in the last year has launched a comprehensive redesign and earned local and national accolades. Earlier this month, the paper earned its first-ever recognition from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (AAN), for excellence in cover design.

“We’re a small company with limited resources, but we strive to be a dynamic source of news and entertainment on Maui,” said Russo. “We want to keep giving our readers things they’ve never seen before.”

I happened across the artwork of painter Brad Parker at a local gallery in Lahaina called Sargent’s Fine Art a couple months ago and was just floored. His paintings are incredibly bright, colorful, detailed and original. I fell in love. So I reached out to Brad to see if he’d be interested in working with us on this 3D cover—and he jumped at the opportunity. The rest is history as they say.

If you happen to have a pair of 3D glasses, then put ‘em on and flip through the digital issue here.

Click to the next post to read the official press release as well.

As always, you can read more of the story here.

This week’s cover was a bit of a rarity for us—we had the opportunity to break news on a story as soon as the news was announced. Being a weekly, we don’t always get that chance. Gov. Linda Lingle had an opportunity to allow a bill to pass that would legalize civil unions here in Hawaii. Since we weren’t sure whether she’d let it pass or veto the bill until the day of our press deadline, we needed to be prepared either way—so I designed 2 covers.