Don’t Just Change in 2018. Improve.
We began the year with uncertainty. We wanted to end it with purpose.
One of the most creative and, quite honestly, fun parts of working on Leader’s Edge is the art process. We want our content to keep you engaged and interested over the long term, but we also want our art to delight and inspire you immediately. We want it to draw you in. And that’s no small task.
Each month, we sit down with a group of artists and designers to brainstorm. We’ve all read the stories we’re covering, and we’ve all brought our perspectives to the table. The conversation that ensues is an ebb and flow of ideas and visuals and opinion and tangents…and opinions and tangents….and opinions and tangents. Sometimes we end up right where we started. Other times we end up so far from our original vision that it would be nearly impossible to navigate our way back.
This month, we asked the team to look backward a bit, to remember how we began 2017 and think about where we’ve been since and where we want to go. We started with uncertainty, and a lot of uncertainty remains.
There have been challenges in between. But as an industry we are in an ever-emerging position to lead change and drive innovation. We recognize both the barriers and opportunities before us, and we will move forward.
It’s never easy to choose a cover. And while we settled on our concept at our art meeting, bringing this one to life took a very hands-on approach. Art director Madeline Darrell spent hours laser cutting letters—only to have us change the wording again and again—hand-cutting flowers and positioning each leaf and berry just so. She experimented with salt, sugar—even creamer—to find the perfect snow. It isn’t always this way—sometimes an existing image is perfect as is. But it isn’t always this much fun either.
