Dear Bridal Magazines: A Breakup

Last week, I paused in the middle of cleaning my apartment to pick up a previously discarded bridal magazine and flip through it in search of collage materials. 

I thought about my changing relationship with the bridal magazines — which have appeared in my mailbox every month since my engagement two years ago — and realized that it resembled a romantic relationship gone sour. So I wrote a breakup letter.

I used Medium as my publishing tool, and submitted the essay to the Dear (Blank) collection, where it was accepted and published this week!

Although a bit self-indulgent, it was a really fun writing exercise that I'm happy to be able to share with so many people. I hope to do more of it!

Read the essay/letter here.

Funemployment

Fifteen things I did this week, in the spaces outside of my job search:

1. Helped out with layout at SF Public Press. Pick up the fall edition at your local SF bookstore and/or market!

2. Reacquainted myself with Trader Joe's.

3. Drank copious amounts of wine with a dear accomplice.

4. Ran from Duboce Park to Ocean Beach with my brother — who unlocked his first 10K!

5. Ate fried chicken sandwiches, drank beer, and went bowling with my brother, to undo any possible healthy progress we achieved from running 6.3 miles.

6. Watched the Giants in the World Series.

7. Made "WE NEED ALTERNATIVE MEDIA NOW" protest signs with SF Bay Guardian publisher Marke B. 

8. Waved my protest sign at a rally against the closure of the SF Bay Guardian alongside Assemblyperson Tom Ammiano, progressive politicos, SFBG staff and supporters.

From left: Nos. 1, 4 and 8. Protest photo by Erika Rae Langdon; others by yours truly

9. Applied for unemployment.

10. Made stuffed bell peppers.

11. Donated blood at Blood Centers of the Pacific. (PSA: Donating is quick, painless, and saves lives — it's an easy way to help patients with cancers and leukemia!)

12. Caught up on Serial, my new podcast addiction.

13. Created a wine collage and transferred my article on natural wines in Paris to Medium, since who knows how long the current SFBG website will be up. 

14. Became completely obsessed with Medium. (The platform, not the show — already obsessed with that.)

15. Put in 8 miles of therapeutic running/walking with editor/writer extraordinaire Cheryl Eddy.

No. 13 — check me out on Medium: https://medium.com/@brookeginnard

HIRE ME.

Awkward sexy magic

For the SF Bay Guardian's annual Sex Issue, arts intern Daniel Bromfield wrote a feature/playlist on awkward songs to give oral to, which was hilarious and amazing. (Read it online here.)

I sent an early copy of the text to illustrator Gracy Henry Pincer, and we came up with this awkward sexy magic:

Layout for the Music section opener in the Bay Guardian's 2014 Sex Issue; illustration by Grace Henry Pincer

Burning Man jumps the shark

As soon as the phrase "Burning Man has jumped the shark" started being thrown around earlier this year, an image of the man on waterskis popped into my head, and I campaigned for SF Bay Guardian editor / Burning Man author Steven T. Jones to write a cover story.

I felt like a collage lent itself really well to the surreal image I had in mind, as well as the basic logistics of the festival itself — people and art appearing in and then eventually disappearing from the desert, leaving no trace.

I scoured a small collection of magazines for a mix of desert and ocean hues, and tore those pages into smaller pieces that focused on color and pattern, leaving behind only a hint of the original image. I then arranged those pieces on my living room floor. Instead of gluing them down for a more manicured look, I let the pieces curl and create depth and shadows.

After photographing the physical collage, I used Photoshop to insert images from Burning Mans past into the desert portion. I also used the software to add a man on skis, and a shark for him to jump over, à la Fonzie. 

Collage using torn magazines, AP file photos, and clip art.

Vacation rush

I recently returned to work after spending two wonderful weeks in Italy and France. I ate to my heart's content, swam in the Mediterranean, read three books, and drank a lot of wine. But to get to that state of relaxation, I had to frantically work ahead before I left. 

Thankfully someone took over layout and art request duties during my absence, but I didn't want to leave without putting together two covers that would run during my absence.

The first cover (which ran second) was for a story about defining the brogrammer and exploring diversity in tech. Since the article's concept was still developing, I wanted to come up with a cover image that was on-point, but still universal enough to capture the changing direction of the piece. 

Hence: the cloud heads. The cloud-head concept works in three ways: 
1. Most tech workers literally work in the cloud. 
2. Brogrammers have their "heads in the clouds" and are out of touch with most peoples' realities of life in San Francisco.
3. The vast majority of tech workers are white males.

I put the cloud heads in front of a mechanical-looking SF skyline. (Thank you, Photoshop filters.) I think I nailed it.

This next cover, which ran the first week I was gone, was for a replacement story that I ended up putting together at the very last minute. 

We originally planned to run a feature on SF General hospital that week, and I had commissioned a beautiful illustration for the cover far in advance. However, the writer determined that she needed more time for the piece, so it was shelved in favor of a story on Recology's shady practices. (The SF General cover hits stands tomorrow, so stay tuned!)

The Recology story was originally pitched as being purely about compost, and I decided this would be a good opportunity to write on a banana — a growing desire produced by Jason Polan's Instagram feed.

When the piece became more elaborate, I incorporated all waste bins — compost, recycling and garbage — in a background resembling the look of an online game, in order to fit with the story's updated headline.

Om Nom o'clock

Putting this issue together, I was constantly hungry. Fuel your cravings here.

Circular food for the win!

Photo collage

As a part of research for her March 26 cover story, news editor Rebecca Bowe walked around the Tenderloin with photographer Mike Koozmin and talked with a few members of the homeless population there. Though few were willing to be photographed, the portraits Koozmin captured were striking, including one of "Mike," which I decided to use in a collage on the cover.

There were concerns about simply using the man's photograph on the cover, with editors feeling that the close-up, emotional portrait might both exploit his grief and make him a poster child for San Francisco's homeless population — to a much greater degree than it would if his photo appeared inside the paper.

The distortion of the collage allowed us to protect some of his privacy, while preserving the emotional impact on the cover. Plus ... I've been wanting to use this photo collage technique for a WHILE, and I think the effect is striking with this story. Read the article here.