10
Oct 2017
2

Rest In Print Village Voice

On September 9, 2017, hundreds of former Village Voice employees converged on New York City to celebrate our

Rest In Print Village Voice

History Melanie Green

On September 9, 2017, hundreds of former Village Voice employees converged on New York City to celebrate our shared experiences at one of America’s most iconic alternative newspapers.

I was lucky enough to be the very first Art Department intern (under Art Director George Delmerico) atThe Voice in 1984, while in my senior year at S.U.N.Y. Purchase. It was long before desktop publishing so we designed our layouts the old-school way; with blue-line grid paper, pencils and rulers. Every Monday night (The Voice went to press on Tuesday morning), a guy whose name escapes me set each headline, one letter at a time, using a photographic typesetter!

After college, I was hired by the new Design Director, Michael Grossman, as an Associate Art Director. This was my first job right out of college, and I owe my entire career to it. Working at The Voice was so much more than just a job though. For me, it was family, mentors, best friends, hated frenemies… It was graduate school. It was where I developed the artistic, political, social and moral viewpoints that I hold to this day. I grew up there and in my opinion there was no better place on earth to do it.

On September 20, 2017, the final print issue of The Village Voice hit the streets. I had a friend get me a copy and mail it to me. I know to most it’s just ink and newsprint, but to me it’s like a family photo album, filled with amazing stories, incredible memories, and the coolest people in the world.The Village Voice print edition is no more. I will miss it. But I hope to see the people again before long!

Village Voice Art Department c. 1986 (Photo by Catherine McGann)

Top photo: Village Voice Art Directors in NYC on September 9, 2017 (Photo by Celeste Melisande Sloman)

16
Feb 2017
0

The Diabolical Ray

Yesterday in The Daily Heller, Steven Heller asked (facetiously one hopes!) Why shouldn’t electronics enable the manufacturing of “the diabolical

The Diabolical Ray

History, Illustration Melanie Green

Yesterday in The Daily Heller, Steven Heller asked (facetiously one hopes!) Why shouldn’t electronics enable the manufacturing of “the diabolical ray”? I have to say with current events that doesn’t sound as unlikely as it would have 6 months ago! Entertaining though the 1924 illustrations are, I find it all too easy to imagine our current President chuckling evilly with his finger poised over the cartoonish ‘hate ray’ button. Blasting things out of the sky for no reason seems like it would perfectly suit his juvenile mentality. So hopefully, this one will stay in the realm of science fiction!

 

26
Feb 2017
1

R.I.P. Bill Paxton

I was very sad to hear about the untimely death of actor Bill Paxton today. Not only has

R.I.P. Bill Paxton

Entertainment Melanie Green

I was very sad to hear about the untimely death of actor Bill Paxton today. Not only has he been in several blockbusters over the course of his career, he’s portrayed interesting characters in literally dozens of films and TV shows. And, as my husband just pointed out, he’s been in practically no duds. For a prolific character actor, that’s very unusual.

In my own career, I’ve crossed paths with Bill Paxton on a few projects. Most recently, I worked on the poster for a movie he starred in with Laurence Fishburne, called The Colony, a futuristic, sci-fi/horror film. As is often the case with entertainment projects, we were working on the poster design concurrently with the film’s production. Principal photography had been completed, but none of the special effects had been finished yet. In order to make the film appear big and epic, (because no matter how small, studios always want their films to seem big and epic), we had to rely on a lot of artifice and stock photography to provide the proper atmosphere.

The results, I thought, were fairly successful. Two of my comps are posted above. But by the time we finished the project, the special effects were available and so the final poster is a half-and-half combination of my designs and another Art Director’s. This is also often the case with movie advertising. There are very few posters out there that can trace their origin to one artist.

And so, this is my tribute to Bill Paxton. He may have physically departed, but his presence, talent and characters will live on in both AV and print.