This is Cook Country

It’s game day in CoMo, and the newest issue of MIZZOU magazine is hitting mailboxes. After a sensational 2023 season culminating in a Cotton Bowl victory over Ohio State, Mizzou football makes it on the cover for the first time since the 2018 season. It’s been years since fans have been this amped for Tiger football, and optimism runs high.

Mizzou quarterback Brady Cook has been through some stuff during his career with the Tigers. His first season as starter was hampered by a torn labrum, yet he played through the pain on the way to a 6–7 season ending with a Gasparilla Bowl loss. Criticism rained down from fans. Message boards blew up. The following preseason, Mizzou’s QB1 was an open competition.

Cook won the job in 2023 and turned in a season for the ages, an 11–2 record and final AP ranking of No. 8 in the nation. Had the expanded 12-team college football playoff started in 2023, the Tigers would have been invited to dance.

The design of the magazine cover tells the story of Brady Cook, the good and the bad, all the noise that comes from playing quarterback in the SEC. We invited Cook to the studio for a portrait session decked in the all-white uniform. I brought a football that I had spray painted white days earlier for prop purposes. The background is filled with real world comments from internet fan boards and other media outlets over the past two seasons, and the tone of chatter progresses across the page, reflecting Cook’s substantial improvement over his career.

Cook was fantastic in the studio and every bit the model student-athlete a university would want. Mizzou is his dream school, and I can’t wait to see how he closes out one of the more memorable careers in recent Tiger Athletics history.

Read the full story here.

Watch a highlight video I produced for the issue:

Marie’s LIFE

In 2023, the Society of Publication Designers recognized MIZZOU magazine’s Spring 2022 cover story “A Life In Focus” as a medal finalist in the feature photography category. 

Marie Hansen, the feature story’s subject, attended the Missouri School of Journalism in the late 1930s and went on to become one of the first female photographers at LIFE Magazine during World War II. We sifted through hundreds of Marie’s photos before finalizing a tight 11-shot edit.

Read the full article here.

Eternal Bragging Rights

Today marks the 15th anniversary of the most important matchup between Missouri and Kansas of all time, across any sport. The day Mizzou would earn the number one ranking in college football. The day “Sod Reesing” was born. 

The number three ranked Tigers and the number two Jayhawks played in Kansas City, the epicenter of MU-KU fandom rivalry. With number one LSU losing earlier in the day, the gravity and lasting importance leading up to this game cannot be overstated. Neither team traditional football powerhouses, fans of both schools knew this situation would never be repeated. A must-win game would be putting it lightly. Eternal bragging rights were on the line, and I was there.

Mizzou jumped out to a large early lead, but Kansas came roaring back in the second half and had a chance to win the game late in the fourth quarter, until the Tigers’ defense served KU QB Todd Reesing a Thanksgiving feast of his own end zone turf on their final offensive play of the game.

As part of promoting the following season, I designed this Hollywood blockbuster-inspired poster to fire up the fanbase. We set up a backdrop in the Tigers’ locker room with three future NFL players (Chase Daniel is currently in his 14th season) and added a shot of the stadium as the background. It made more of a local impact in Columbia than I had ever anticipated, popping up in iconic restaurants around town and remaining for several seasons. When we were house hunting years later, I spotted it on the walls of several home photo galleries. Sadly, the 2008 season didn’t reach the heights of the prior year, but Mizzou fans enjoyed two of the winningest years in its program, packed with unforgettable players and moments. Armageddon at Arrowhead was undisputedly at the top.

Several easter eggs in the fine print. Check ’em out!

Hidden Easter Eggs

Occasionally in my work, I’ll add a hidden surprise relevant to the content (sometimes not), that often goes unnoticed. Most of the time I do it for my own amusement and never mention it to anyone. This article on new baseball tech at Mizzou is one of my personal favorites. During the process of meticulously drawing the circuit board headline treatment, I included small components labeled with ballplayers’ initials and their numbers for the entire roster. I like to think an astute reader on that year’s team, or most likely his parents, made the connection. I do know the father of the player pictured was thrilled — he reached out for assistance in producing a poster of the spread. Reactions like that never get old.

Calling Dr. Jones

Hot off the press, it’s MIZZOU magazine’s Fall 2022 issue! I had the opportunity to work with master illustrator Jason Seiler for this riff on Indiana Jones. Jason’s work has appeared everywhere — TIME, Rolling Stone, Disney and the current issue of MAD magazine, to name a few. It’s always a thrill to work with an artist of his caliber.

Our subject, Kent Jones, grew up idolizing New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael, leading to his own successful career as a television show writer in New York. His thoroughly entertaining first-person essay is packed with humor and an existential question on what it means to be a critic in media today. Raiders of the Lost Ark is referenced repeatedly throughout, hence the direction of the cover art. I did my best to continue the Hollywood theme for the opening spread with an illustration depicting Kent as Thor. “Opinions are a hammer. The world is a nail.” Watch the cover process below and read the full story.