One of my favorite jobs ever was Founding Art Director of Small Press magazine, an R.R. Bowker publication.

Bruce Gray, the President of R.R. Bowker, was recommended to me by Marshall Loeb at Money magazine (where I was Art Directing a special issue at the time). If it weren’t for Bruce, this magical publication would have never existed.

My editor, Marlene Charnizon, was a great partner to work with. Each issue was a labor of love. I was really, really, lucky to work with her.

This was early in my publication design career, but I had already become impassioned about the art world. The opportunity to work with the greatest artists in the world was one of the best parts of editorial design.

My vision for the magazine was that its design should reflect it’s subject matter, and was inspired in particular by book design. In addition, each cover should be dedicated entirely to original art by artists who were not only superb but also shared our passion for the small press world.

I got a decent (for trade) budget for my covers. And we had a beautiful paper stock. The rest was up to me in seeking out and convincing each artist what a great showcase Small Press was for their artwork. It was not beneath me to resort to begging if an artist was reluctant to create original art for us. My only criteria was that the artist illustrate something to do with small presses.

A special thrill was being able to research the best wood engravers of our time, and many of them created work for us.

Their artwork here speaks to their shared passion.

-Traci Churchill, April 15, 2020