Hot off the press! Meet Humanist Perspectives' Art Director

[ed_rex]

Young Geoffrey, Art Director. Humanist Perspectives #182, Autumn 2012, should be on fine newstands everywhere (in Canada) next week!

It might only be a one-shot title (mine, that is; Humanist Perspectives itself has been around since 1967), but "Art Director: Geoffrey Dow" has a rather nice ring to it.

The previous Art Director begged off this issue for personal reasons and, at this point, I don't know whether he will re-take the reins. But there's no sense in pretending that I don't (for thoroughly selfish personal reasons) hope he decides not to return. The money is nice and I really enjoy the work.

I've become too jaded to say that I was "thrilled" when I got my hands on copies of the magazine yesterday, but I was happy to see them and to feel them for real — a far different experience than seeing something on a screen.

On a technical note, I did the work using open source technologies almost exclusively. LibreOffice for converting all manner of Word files, The Gimp for image manipulation and, especially, a program that has developed by leaps and bounds since I first used it maybe a year and a half-ago, Scribus, which in my humble opinion has become a real layout program. Yes, it still crashes more than I'd like, but if you save your work regularly it's not a serious issue. That last will be getting a donation from me just as soon as I cash my check.

Naturally, I spotted flaws as soon as I opened the magazine, as well as things I will just do differently if I get another crack at it, but all-in-all, I'm pretty pleased with my work. And the back cover cartoon cracks me right up, if I do say so myself.