Charlie Hess: I thought about all the old magazines I'd worked on, starting with my first, Print Magazine. Working with Design Director Andy Kner was my version of grad school. And I thought about the good old days of relatively big art budgets, like Buzz Magazine (a great LA city mag), and Code Magazine (basically GQ for men of color.) But in the end I focused on my magazines for universities and prep schools. It's here I learned to make big ideas on little budgets.

I settled on the last 21 years at UCLA Magazine. In looking at these five covers together I see a lot of love in the making of them, and knowing what a tiny crew can do when they have time to brainstorm, borrow and steal. 

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Serge Ricco: I've been the Creative Director at L’Obs ("Le nouvel Observateur" was the old name) for 8 years. Before that, I was the Art Director of Télérama, a famous French cultural weekly magazine for 20 years. It’s difficult to choose between 500 covers. It’s like choosing between your children. I tried to show the different themes that gives a true picture of our magazine.

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