Oscar Photo Marathon (Toronto Edition) Day 1

With Mark Mann and AwardsLine editor Anna Lisa Raya at the Templar hotel in Toronto shooting 79 Oscar-season contenders in 4 days.  

Robert Downey Jr. (The Judge) and Mark Mann

Vera Farmiga (The Judge) and Mark Mann

Al Pacino and Mark Mann

Greta Gerwig

Chris Evans and Mark Mann

New Work: AwardsLine (Emmy Issue 5 of 5)

Closing out Emmy season on a high note with a strong issue featuring William H. Macy photographed by Michael Lewis. Looking forward to kicking off Oscar season in Toronto next month, and the launch of AwardsLine.com in November . . .

William H. Macy on the set of Shameless, photographed by Michael Lewis

Cover Story

Kerry Washington (Scandal), photographed by J.R. Mankoff

Matt Bomer (The Normal Heart), photographed by Mark Mann. Minnie Driver photographed by J.R. Mankoff

Uzo Aduba (OITNB), photographed by Mark Mann

Natasha Lyonne (OITNB), photographed by J.R. Mankoff

Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum (Project Runway), photographed by Mark Mann

TOC, photograph by J.R. Mankoff 

Back page info-graphic. Series with the most Emmy love typically also have the lowest viewerships

New Work: AwardsLine (Emmy Issue 4 of 5)

Cat Deeley (So You Think You Can Dance) photographed by J.R. Mankoff

Anthony Bourdain (Parts Unknown) photographed by Mark Mann

Jodie Foster (Orange Is the New Black) photographed by J.R. Mankoff

Mike Judge (Silicon Valley) photographed by J.R. Mankoff

Post-Nom Emmy Shoot (Part 2: New York)

Shooting five nominees today with Mark Mann, including Anthony Bourdain, Heidi Klum, Matt Bomer and Uzo Aduba

Anthony Bourdain moments after Jujitsu class 

Matt Bomer (The Normal Heart)

Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum (Project Runway)

Uzo Aduba (Orange Is The New Black)

Post-Nom Emmy Shoot (Part 1: Los Angeles)

Another photo-shoot marathon today with J.R. Mankoff, featuring Emmy nominees Billy Bob Thornton, Jodie Foster, Mike Judge, Fred Armisen, Kerry Washington, Andre Braugher, Minnie Driver, Natasha Lyonne, Cat Deeley and Colin Hanks. Next up: New York

Billy Bob Thornton (Fargo)

Jodie Foster (Orange Is The New Black)

Fred Armisen (Portlandia)

Kerry Washington (Scandal)

Mike Judge (Silicon Valley)

Cat Deeley (So You Think You Can Dance)

Andre Braugher (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)

Variety (Remixed)

In addition to the weekly magazine, Variety publishes daily editions during Emmy and Oscar season — a potentially confusing array of products for readers given the trade's recent history as a daily and the pervasiveness of false ad covers that obscure both graphic and editorial cues to each new issue.

My solution was to create a design and editorial structure that was unique enough to avoid confusion with the weekly, yet familiar enough that readers would immediately be comfortable navigating its pages.  

The final cover sketch for the daily editions. Editorial space was carved out above the advertising and to the right of the logo to clearly label the edition, tease the content inside and differentiate between the weekly magazine.

To signal 'soft news' and to help avoid confusion with the weekly magazine, the daily edition features large folios positioned in a more spacious top margin, a bright blue color used behind captions and pull quotes, and a different display and text style of Commercial Type's Duplicate family (Ionic). 

The page architecture of the daily edition is largely based on a rejected sketch from the Variety redesign project in 2013. Screenshots of those sketches can be found in the Past Projects section of this site under Rejected/Unpublished.

Duplicate Ionic offered a subtle shift in tone and voice for the daily editions while retaining a strong visual link to the design of the weekly magazine which uses Duplicate Slab and Sans throughout.

The Contenders portion of the magazine (awards content) is labeled with gold folios. 

This checkerboard-like layout was created to highlight likely contenders in each awards category. It allows flexibility in the number of entries listed for each category, scale change within the imagery for visual interest, while providing the art dept. an easy-to-follow template for quick production.

Creative Director for all pages: Chris Mihal. Director of Photography: Bailey Franklin.

New Work: AwardsLine (Emmy Issue 3 of 5)

Bay-area photographer Thomas Sanders was commissioned to capture convincing viewer reactions to television gore for this week's cover story. Casting was done on Craigslist!

Mapping the career paths of actors who began on TV, dabbled in film, and then returned to the small screen.

Jim Parsons (The Normal Heart) photographed by J.R. Mankoff

Keri Russell (The Americans) photographed by Mark Mann

Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex) photographed by J.R. Mankoff

Josh Charles (The Good Wife) photographed by Mark Mann

Jane Fonda (The Newsroom) photographed by J.R. Mankoff

New Work: AwardsLine (Emmy Issue 2 of 5)

The Comedy Issue

Lorne Michaels (Saturday Night Live) photographed by Mark Mann 

Andy Samberg (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) photographed by J.R. Mankoff

Anna Chlumsky (Veep) photographed by Mark Mann

Will Arnett (The Millers, Arrested Development) photographed by J.R. Mankoff

Mindy Kaling (The Mindy Project) photographed by J.R. Mankoff

The Sympathy Vote, illustrated by Costhanzo

The new crop of late night hosts. 

New Work: AwardsLine (Emmy Issue 1 of 5)

Recently promoted Editor-In-Chief Anna Lisa Raya and I are back in production of Deadline's awards-season publication AwardsLine, and although our staff has been reduced by one, we've managed to set the bar pretty high for what a two-man team can accomplish at a weekly with limited resources. Here, a brief look at the first issue . . . 

True Detective's Matthew McConaughey, photographed by Kevin Scanlon

Cover story on event programming. The display typeface Diversa (designed by Dino dos Santos) joins the type palette this Emmy season.

Mark Mann was recruited to shoot all of the New York-based talent for the Dialogue section this season in B&W. House of Cards show runner Beau Willimon, above.

J.R. Mankoff tackled the L.A. photo shoots in color. Ryan Murphy (The Normal Heart, Glee, American Horror Story), above.

The Crafts dept, focusing on below-the-line talent.

Buenos Aires-based illustrator Costhanzo has again been commissioned to create every illustration in the book.

Each issue begins with The First Take, a full spread, behind-the-scenes look at a contending show.

Front-of-book column. Cyrus Highsmith's Salvo Sans is used for body text (and sometimes display) throughout the magazine.

The back page. 

A Quickie w/ Lorne Michaels

It's hard to argue for more time and greater access with talent when you pull off these quick and dirty shoots (notice the low ceiling) with great results (check back in 3 weeks for the final photos) . . .

Mark Mann (who photographed President Obama for Esquire in just 4 minutes), working fast with Lorne Michaels for AwardsLine inside a 6-minute window between tapings of The Tonight Show and Late Night (with SNL rehearsals happening behind that curtain). 

13 Subjects, 3 Days, 2 Locations . . .

The Dialogue section for pre-nom AwardsLine Emmy editions shaping up nicely after a marathon week of photo shoots in NY and LA

Emmy Pre-Nom Marathon (Part 3)

If you have to go straight into work after taking a delayed red-eye flight across the country, it's nice to have Will Arnett there to crack you up . . .

J.R. Mankoff and Will Arnett

Ryan Murphy (showrunner for American Horror Story and The Normal Heart) with Jim Parsons (Big Bang Theory and The Normal Heart).

Emmy Pre-Nom Marathon (Part 2)

With Mark Mann in NYC shooting Keri Russell, Josh Charles, Beau Willimon and Anna Chlumsky. Running on 1-hour sleep and strong espresso 

Mark Mann shooting Keri Russell (The Americans)

Josh Charles (The Good Wife)

Mark and Graflex with House of Card's show runner Beau Willimon

Veep's Anna Chlumsky. Or My Girl if you prefer . . .

Emmy Pre-Nom Marathon (Part 1)

First of 3 full-day shoots this week for Emmy season. Jane Fonda, Mike Schur, Mindy Kaling and Lizzy Caplan. Off to New York for round 2 . . .

J.R. Mankoff with Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex, Showtime) for AwardsLine

Variety, One Year Later . . .

A few big changes and many small tweaks to Variety, a year after my big redesign. 

A quicker, more module-based front-of-book section opener

A right-hand opener was added to the data/charts section, with stronger visual identity

Revamped party pages . . . 

A new on-the-web page