Twin Cities Reader covers from 1995

A while back I posted some Twin Cities Reader covers from when I worked there in the mid-1990s.

Here are a few more covers from January through early August 1995. Once the paper went out of business (long story) I had bound-copy books made of the issues I worked on. Plus the rest of 1995 for context.

Speaking of context, here is what the competition looked like in 1995. City Pages had a serious redesign in 1992 and they continued to use it mostly unaltered until a 2001 redesign. Here's an informative article on City Pages' design history (hey, there's Marcia Wright Roepke and me!). (Note: I stole this cover image from that article.)

That's how I am now posting a bunch of covers that I didn't work on. I think these covers are a fun time capsule.

Photographing bound copies is an art I haven't mastered. That means there's a weird bend here and there. Sorry about that. Bound copies are great for preservation, but not so good for reproduction. (I'm sure there's a better solution for taking pictures of these things, but I haven't found it.)

The Twin Cities Reader's editor at the start of 1995 was David Carr (yes, the late New York Times columnist). Marcia Wright Roepke was the art director. Marcia used Cochin for the logotype. Looks distinctive and classy. The logo's really big -- but light, so it's not overpowering. A good contrast to City Pages look.

A black-plus-two-color cover with a black and white photo -- as was often the case at the time for free alternative weeklies. Note the inflammatory headline. A Carr (and alt-weekly) specialty. (As always, click on the image for a larger view.)

Twin Cities Reader. January 4, 1995. Photograph by Craig Lassig.

Another black plus two colors.

Twin Cities Reader. January 11, 1995. Photograph by Brian Pobuda.

Full color!

Twin Cities Reader. January 18, 1995. Illustration by Jeff Tolbert.

Black plus two colors. Type only. And big. Get out of town! (One of my favorite recurring Twin Cities Reader articles. So grouchy.)

Twin Cities Reader. January 25, 1995.

Black plus two colors. Black and white photo. Fun headline, "Ticket Master." I like the whole thing, except the headline type coulda been a little stronger. (Marcia, you know I love you.)

Twin Cities Reader. February 1, 1995. Photograph by Brian Pobuda.

Black plus two colors. Black and white photo. Excellent color selection.

Twin Cities Reader. February 8, 1995. Photograph by Marc Avery.

Full-color cover featuring Twin Cities rock and roller, Ed Ackerson -- don't spare the white space. Lotsa fun.

Twin Cities Reader. February 15, 1995. Photograph by Brian Pobuda.

A nice black plus two-color cover. Very newsy looking. Subtle selective tinting on the background of the photo.

Twin Cities Reader. February 22, 1995. Photograph by Craig Lassig.

Black plus two colors. Another nice selection of colors. Another typically snotty headline.

Twin Cities Reader. March 1, 1995. Photograph by Brian Pobuda.

Black plus one color. Punchy. I like it.

Twin Cities Reader. March 8, 1995. Photograph by Marc Avery.

Full-page black and white photo. Black plus two colors. No apologies. This is Marcia Wright Roepke's last Twin Cities Reader cover design.

Twin Cities Reader. March 15, 1995. Photograph by Sevans.

Bruce Macindoe was the art director from March '95 to August '95. Here's his first cover. Following the Marcia Wright Roepke template. Black plus one color. Nice type treatment and white space.

Twin Cities Reader. March 22, 1995. Photographs by John Noltner.

Black plus two colors. Very aggressive.

Twin Cities Reader. March 29, 1995. Photograph by Darrell Eager.

Black plus two colors. It might have been a mistake to print this fine-lined illustration in a spot color. The illustration is lost next to the sea of red behind the logo.

Twin Cities Reader. April 5, 1995. Illustration by Peter Bastiansen.

With this issue, Bruce Macindoe changed the Reader's logo to Franklin Gothic Extra Condensed. Very bold. A strong cover.

Twin Cities Reader. April 12, 1995. Photograph by Erika Kyte.

Black plus two colors. This is the last of the David Carr Twin Cities Readers. He went off to edit Washington City Paper.

Twin Cities Reader. April 19, 1995. Photograph by Diana Watters.

Full color. Nice use of white space. First issue edited by Claude Peck. Claude was the editor through to the end of the Reader in 1997.

Twin Cities Reader. April 26, 1995. Illustration by Erik Johnson.

Full color. Subtle yellow duotone on the artwork.

Twin Cities Reader. May 17, 1995. Illustration by Jim Rownd.

Full color. Colorful type! Nice illo. A very successful cover, I think.

Twin Cities Reader. June 7, 1995. Illustration by Tom Garret.

Black plus two. No main photo, but it looks great. Giving the typeface Franklin Gothic a real newsy workout. (This logo treatment looks a lot like what I did once I became art director.)

Twin Cities Reader. June 14, 1995.

Black plus two.

Twin Cities Reader. June 21, 1995. Photograph by Mark Avery.

Black plus two. Looks like full color. Great cover. Powerhouse illustration by Ward Sutton (who at the time was contributing a weekly comic strip to the paper.)

Twin Cities Reader. June 28, 1995. Illustration by Ward Sutton.

Full color with black and white duotone photos. This cover suffers from everything-is-the-same-size syndrome.

Twin Cities Reader. July 4, 1995. Photographs by Craig Lassig.

Full color.

Twin Cities Reader. July 12, 1995. Photograph by Anthony Brett Schreck.

Full color. Nice use of white space. A nice cover.

Twin Cities Reader. July 19, 1995. Photograph by Craig Bares.

Black plus two. Nice color combo. Successful duotone. It's a bit strange that, although they are in separate stories, the two guys pictured on the cover look like twins.

Twin Cities Reader. July 26, 1995. Photograph by Sevans.

Black plus two.

Twin Cities Reader. August 2, 1995. Photograph by John Noltner.

Bruce Macindoe's last cover. Black plus two colors.

Twin Cities Reader. August 9. 1995. Photograph by John Noltner.

After Bruce left, Twin Cities Reader Copy Chief Ruth Weleczki filled in as art director for this cover.

Twin Cities Reader. August 16, 1995. Photograph by Craig Lassig.

In a future blog post: I'll put up the old Twin Cities Reader covers that I designed.