meta for everyone

Band of Horses poster - Atlanta

2010-10-22T13:58:00.004-11:00

A limited edition of signed & numbered prints on gorgeous cream stock will be available soon!

Band of Horses poster - Charleston

2010-10-22T13:57:00.005-11:00

A limited edition of signed & numbered prints on gorgeous cream stock will be available soon!

Band of Horses poster - Asheville

2010-10-22T13:56:00.002-11:00

A limited edition of signed & numbered prints on gorgeous cream stock will be available soon!

RE:FORM SCHOOL work-in-progress

2010-09-06T18:04:00.002-11:00

48hour Magazine

2010-05-07T12:10:00.002-11:00

Here's a piece I'm working on for 48 Hour Magazine. The theme, announced at noon today, is 'hustle'. We'll see how much more time I have to work on it - and what it looks like when it's finished.

Public Option Please

2009-10-31T17:58:00.006-11:00

Here's an 18 x 24 poster I submitted to the Public Option Please competition that is currently being featured in the California Design Biennial at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. It can be yours for $30 (plus tax + shipping)!!

Slide Show!!!!

2009-08-24T14:04:00.004-11:00

New 826LA Time Travel Mart posters!

2009-08-20T20:30:00.014-11:00

Finally some new stuff again! Since I left journalism (Los Angeles Times) for product design (Knock Knock), I've found I have less material I can post as it's finished BUT here (at last) are the new posters for 826LA. I'm very, very grateful for the opportunity to work with 826; they're smart, creative, and have a great mission. Everybody wins. I made these with help from Mac Barnett and Jon Korn, two very talented copywriters who were the brains behind the Time Travel Mart in Echo Park. The typefaces Turnpike and Featured Item were designed by Stu Sandler at Font Diner. The script face, Vitrina, is from Cubanica.

You can buy these posters and a lot of other great stuff at 826la.org/store.

Valentine's Day

2008-12-02T05:24:00.002-11:00

New York Times

2008-12-01T11:45:00.003-11:00

I made this illustration for the New York Times last week. Here's the story. Exciting!

826:Tiny Vaudeville

2008-09-23T05:12:00.019-11:00

Here's a preview of the poster for Tiny Vaudeville, a new-for-2009 monthly event to be put on by 826LA. When i was researching Vaudeville I learned that the word means 'voice of the city' and has also been described as 'literary burlesque', which makes it a great match for a booksy setup like 826. The plan is to do three or four versions with different iconography (film projectors, books, typewriters, microphones, etc) and also more of the legs that I drew. Those silver strappy mary jane heels from J.Crew finally paid off! Oh - this information is not real - the names are for type tests only.

vote for GOOD

2008-09-20T12:10:00.005-11:00

I just sent this off to GOOD magazine's awesome Project 001 bumper sticker challenge. Check it out here.

826 holiday cards: sneak preview

2008-09-14T19:10:00.002-11:00

Manifest Hope at the DNC

2008-08-30T11:29:00.005-11:00

Denver was amazing. AMAZING. I saw my posters all over the city--I'm told that 3000 were distributed at the Women's Caucus! You can see more photos from the trip here.

Denver-ready!

2008-08-22T03:55:00.005-11:00

These came back from the printer Tuesday - the stock is beautiful! They were printed at Heinz Weber in Santa Monica, and everyone there was really nice and helpful, and no one made fun of me for being so nervous about signing them. Everyone involved in this process has been fantastic!

something new i'm working on

2008-08-08T19:33:00.006-11:00

826 finals

2008-06-26T08:26:00.004-11:00

Los Angeles Times: illustration

2008-05-30T08:41:00.002-11:00

May 27 2008

I just did this spot for the Highway 1 section of the LA Times. In the column, the writer describes the experience of driving her parents' old Buick around Los Angeles. Her posh, hybrid-y friends mock her for cruising around in a passe giant, but in the old car, she finds she's surrounded by love and nostalgia.

we're soaking in it

2007-11-30T10:24:00.001-11:00

I made this yesterday morning for my friend Alonso. Every year he makes an audio fruitcake for all of his friends. This year's title is "You're Soaking In It." I can't wait to hear it!

Going Away

2007-11-30T10:19:00.000-11:00

One of my favorite people threw me a fantastic going-away party my last weekend in Detroit. Thanks, Mauricio!

Detroit Free Press: We gotta get out of this place

2007-10-11T03:33:00.001-11:00

September 16, 2007

This is my last Free Press Editorial cover illustration.

Detroit Free Press: The Case for Preschool

2007-07-30T04:38:00.001-11:00

published July 29, 2007

This is the first time I ever art-directed a child. Good job, kiddo!

Detroit Free Press: Remembering the Riots

2007-07-23T14:24:00.001-11:00

published July 22, 2007
The weekend papers were full of riot-related stories, many illustrated with archival photos. I wanted to take a different approach, as did the Editorial page editors, who wanted to refocus on the Detroit of today, and the ways the city is still failing to pull it together, and what we can do now to fix the city. The first idea I had was ambitious and stupid; I wanted to render a page turning, with the front page from that day in 1967 giving way to a page in our 2007 paper. I sketched it out in illustrator, but it was pretty clear that the idea was...unclear. And cliched. And would require a lot of tedious photoshop that I honestly wasn't up for. The next idea I had was to set the whole page up super-typically, with a nice aerial shot of city front and center, and the text dropping below not unlike it is in the current version, but with a giant, looming '1967' shadow casting across the page. Ultimately, I couldn't find an aerial photo in the archives I was happy with. Then I went to my fall-back "What would Week In Review Do?" Something simple. So I did this. I like it.

Detroit Free Press: Sundays in July

2007-07-13T08:07:00.000-11:00

Up top is a spot illustration I did for Ron Dzwonkowski's Sunday column about the misconception that men know how to grill safely and effectively. Below is an On Point front that featured Free Press columnist Rochele Riley and introduced and roundtable discussion among five recent Detroit-area high school graduates, on race, moderated by Rochele.

illustration: The Giving Tree

2007-06-11T05:50:00.000-11:00

published April 8, 2007
This illustration accompanied a column by Editorial Page Editor Ron Dzwonkowski that memorialized his friend and longtime Free Press Publisher Neal Shine, who passed away April 3, 2007.

Detroit Free Press: Regionalism

2007-06-09T17:47:00.001-11:00

published June 10 2007
this illustration was made from scratch, and was my favorite photoshop challenge ever. it took me about four tries to before i figured out how make the puzzle pieces , and then lots of versioning before i got them scattered the way I liked. I strugged with detail - should i have included freeway markers and smaller cities like Farmington Hills, St. Clair Shores and Royal Oak? Or would the inclusion of those specifics made the whole image too complex and unreadable? I think I could have done more with it, but I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

Detroit Free Press: Celebrate Michigan

2007-06-09T17:21:00.001-11:00

published June 3, 2007
This 23-page special travel section was a massive team effort. I was the designer and illustrator. David Pierce did the graphics. Mauricio Gutierrez and Steve Dorsey provided fantastic feedback and direction. I pitched about ten cover ideas, and we narrowed it down to two ideas: 1) a souvenir t-shirt, that would have read "my Free Press went to sixty festivals, four beaches, eighteen architectural sites, etc., and all i got was this awesome summer vacation guide". we would have styled and shot a model, then created and distressed the shirt design in photoshop. 2)a typographic map which would serve as a promotional poster and an index. We picked the second. I drank a ton of coffee, then wrote the whole thing in illustrator, using an incomplete budget as a guideline, adding excerpts from books we covered, and a lot of random exclamations, like 'wear sunscreen!' and 'out of sight!' (which was also one of the many films we covered which was shot in michigan). a lot of the cheekier copy was cut, but the tone is still fun and vibrant. the illustrations are all mine. I was especially happy to add a drawing of my favorite beat-up Eames shell chair that I bought for fifty bucks off a sidewalk in Silverlake, when I was living in Los Angeles. It was made in Michigan, like I was!

Detroit Free Press: Real ID

2007-06-09T17:21:00.000-11:00

published May 27, 2007
photos by photodisc

Detroit Free Press: VA Tech shootings

2007-06-09T11:58:00.000-11:00

published April 29, 2007

this was my third pitch for this four-part editorial. originally, I wanted to do a 'connect-the-dots' kind of thing, when it seemed the story would be focused on how the different supporting players (the parents, police, classmates, etc), might have seen this disaster coming. that sketch (which i unfortunately recycled) showed bullet holes piercing the paper, connecting to form the image of a student with a gun (which I recycled in a secondary illustration, shown below). The second pitch was a maze metaphor: how would a student make his way past so many obstacles set up to prevent such a massacre? in that image, the killer would have knocked the walls down and barreled straight into the center, which would have been an open classroom with a few desks and chairs strewn around. in the end, the hurdles seemed like the clearest image, with the closest visual tie to a student, via the track suit. it's not the image i liked the best, but i think it was the most direct, and it implies a velocity/inevitability that i like. i'm happy with the way it turned out.

Detroit Free Press: Michigan's bitter pill

2007-06-09T11:51:00.000-11:00

published March 2007
this is actually a self-portrait of sorts. i threw some Aleve in an old perscription bottle, and shot it with my digital camera, available light in the Free Press photo studio. I scraped off the old label and created a new one using illustrator and photoshop. getting the type to distort the right way was kind of a drag, but it was a fun challenge. i'm happy with the way it turned out - especially the little tear on the fake label.

photo: new york

2007-06-09T06:45:00.001-11:00

Here's Michigan from the air, Prospect Park, and a canopy of sassafras leaves. I used to eat sassafras leaves near my cottage on Lake Michigan. It was really exciting to find them in Brooklyn, too. I LOVE Prospect Park.

photo: cat photography

2007-06-09T06:42:00.001-11:00

Detroit Free Press: water monsters

2007-06-09T06:18:00.001-11:00

published February 2007

I did this illustration for a Sunday Editorial cover I designed in February 2007.

Detroit Free Press: 2006 archive

2007-06-09T05:41:00.000-11:00

2006 SND entries
These are some of the first Sunday Editorial covers I did at the Detroit Free Press after I redesigned the section. I entered these pages in the illustration, front page, and section redesign categories. I got an SND Award of Excellence in the redesign category.

books: covers for my friend dave white

2007-06-09T05:38:00.001-11:00

my friend dave white wrote a really funny book about hating Los Angeles, the second happiest place on earth. these three covers were a last-minute (which means the day before) quickie (done in an hour) pitch to the publisher because he hated the design they were going with. they didn't use any of these, but I like them anyway, and so did dave.

illustration roundup

2007-06-09T05:31:00.001-11:00

This appeared in the Free Press last November. It's about CyberMonday - the first Monday after Thanksgiving when everyone goes online to buy Christmas presents.

I did this during the same Otis class as when I did the Sufjan posters.
Bryan Erickson at the Out Traveler hired me to do these 'posters' for a story on literary destinations.

illustration: silkscreen posters

2007-06-09T05:21:00.001-11:00

I made these posters while I was taking a silkscreen class at Otis College in 2005. Sufjan Stevens is from Detroit, and made a really beautiful album about the state of Michigan (where I'm from), and followed it up with a really beautiful album about Illinois. I thought a poster showing a flock of birds migrating south with their instruments (you can't really see Lake Michigan in these images, but it's there) might be a cool approach to promoting that second album. The bottom poster was for a show he did at a Christian college in Grand Rapids. While he's not a 'Christian Recording Artist', he does weave some biblical themes into some of his songs. I thought a poster showing how to make a God's Eye might be a fun way to address that undercurrent.

magazines: the advocate

2007-06-09T05:17:00.000-11:00

2004-2005
I spent two years at The Advocate magazine in Los Angeles. I did a big redesign while I was there, but these images are from an earlier redesign pitch....so they didn't publish. But I think it's my best work from my time there. Michele Fleury was the photo editor at the time; photo credits to come.

magazines: didn't happen

2007-06-09T05:11:00.001-11:00

this is a prototype for a family magazine that didn't quite come together...

magazines: music

2007-06-09T05:04:00.001-11:00

i got my first design job when i was 25. the company wasn't yet Clear Channel, but that's what it became. these are some of my earliest pages, circa 2000.

photo: be a painting

2007-06-09T03:27:00.000-11:00

my friend and i went to new york in march. one of the best parts of the trip was going to MoMA. we pretended to be paintings. i'm a chagall. she's a rothko.

resume

2007-06-09T02:21:00.012-11:00

amy martin

experience

SENIOR DESIGNER Knock Knock December 2008 - November 2009

Concept, write and design all manner of smart, funny paper goods for Venice-based design firm.

DESIGN EDITOR Los Angeles Times August 2007-August 2008

Book, plan and design daily Calendar section. Create original illustrations for Book Review and Highway 1 sections.

FEATURES DESIGNER Detroit Free Press January 2006-August 2007

EDITORIAL (1.07-present) Designed SND award-winning On Point Sunday editorial section for May 2006 launch of the Sunday Free Press. Direct, design and illustrate weekly On Point section.
NEWS (4.06-3.07) Worked closely with photography, graphics and news desks to create dynamic, informative daily news packages.
FEATURES (4.07- present) Illustrate and design daily and weekly features sections including Travel, Books and PLAY, a weekly entertainment tab. Art directed, designed and illustrated “Celebrate Michigan,” a 22-page special travel section that published June 3. Regularly nominated for monthly Bravo! Our Best Stuff Free Press awards.

ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR The Advocate 2003-2006

Spearheaded and led magazine redesign in May 2005. Designed and art directed front-of-the-book features and special sections.
Assigned and directed illustrations. Created original illustrations and infographics. Researched and procured conceptual stock.

LEAD DESIGNER Clear Channel Multimedia Group 2000-2003

Designed several weekly music industry magazines. Redesigned two magazines, one of which won a 2003 Radio Music Association’s Trade Publication of the Year award.

COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR / CREW LEADER Habitat for Humanity/AmeriCorps 1998-1999

Edited, designed and coordinated distribution of all publications. Planned special events, including outreach fairs and home dedications.
Trained and supervised volunteers from corporate, faith and educational organizations. Built 17 homes with and for low-income families.

freelance clients
The New York Times, TBWA/Chiat/Day, 826LA, Variety, Mighty Fine, Smog Design, The Out Traveler magazine, Alyson Books, Under the Radar magazine, The Sierra Club Angeles Chapter, LA Youth, The University of Michigan Alumni Association

awards and recognition

2008 MANIFEST HOPE Invited to create and show work at the Manifest Hope Gallery at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. A run of 30,000 posters I designed will be distributed throughout the Midwest in the next 60 days.

2008 826LA TIME TRAVEL MART EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH for designing a poster series that raised over $15,000 dollars in the first two weeks that it was available for sale.

2008 FIRST PLACE, feature page design, Society of Professional Journalists, Detroit chapter

2007 AWARD OF EXCELLENCE, Feature page design, Society for News Design

2006 AWARD OF EXCELLENCE, Section redesign, Society for News Design

education
University of Michigan School of Art & Design, BFA August 1998
Additional coursework at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena
and Otis college of Art & design in Los Angeles