A selection of covers from Time Out New York spanning January 2009 to September 2010.

Lucy Quintanilla: A decade ago, I was part of Time Out New York’s art department. We were a scrappy, young and hungry team of artists, designers and photographers. We had a real DIY spirit and took risks whenever we could.

TONY has a sense of humor and January 8-14 2009’s ‘Get Fit’ issue showcased our take on traditional men’s health/fitness magazines. I remember the team looking at tons of images of body builders to try and find just the right muscle men (and their tiny shorts) for the cover. We then photoshopped on the heads of comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, who were featured in an interview within the magazine.

In 2010, Editor-in Chief Michael Friedson let us run with the idea of making an all-candy cover for the September 23–29 issue. We worked with Dylan’s Candy Bar to bring our cover to life. I had the run of the store and grabbed bags of gummies, jelly beans and other sugary sweets in every color I could get my hands on. I food styled letter after letter while in-house photographer Jolie Ruben shot each item. Digital Imaging Specialist Nikki Miller painstaking color corrected numerous letters and mastifully turned a circle lollipop into the heart at the center of the cover.

A color wheel of shoes was tossed out as an idea for our September 9-15, 2010 ‘Hot Looks for Fall’ fashion issue. The night before the cover was set to be shipped, the fashion editor and I decided it was our best option. I sent a quick 1:30 am text to our Editor-in-Chief for approval; he said if we could pull it off, to go for it. Cut to a few hours later where we are buying and picking up sample shoes for an early morning in-house shoot. The cover was styled, photographed, color corrected, and designed that morning, then approved and shipped by the afternoon.

Finally, there was the issue that bonded our art department like nothing else could. In 2010, for an issue about the best NYC parks, every single image in the magazine—including section photos and thumbnails—was made into 3D. To say it was a learning experience is an understatement. But that is what was great about this group of people. We wanted to learn and challenge ourselves, and we were a team—one of the best art teams I’ve ever had the opportunity of working with in my career. (Also, shout-out to our awesome editors.)

CREDITS

Design Department:  Kathryn Brazier, Allison Duda, Adam Fulrath, J. Oberman,  Maria Stegner, Atsuhiro Saisho, Jeff Quinn and Lucy Quintanilla.

Digital Imaging: John Colburn,  Juan Carlos Hernandez, NIkki Miller and Jay Muhlin.

Photo Department: Courtenay Kendall, Beth Levendis, Robert De Luna, Roxana Marroquin, Cinzia Reale-Castello and Jolie Ruben.

Editor-in-Chief: Michael Friedson