September 28, 2012
Playboy’s First Illustrated Cover in 23 Years
A few weeks ago, illustrator Sarah J. Coleman got a curious email and her first instinct was to delete it. However, before she decided to send it to “TRASH,” Sarah took a peek and lo and behold, it was an email from Playboy Magazine. The next thing she knew, Sarah was picking up the phone. “The best jobs are often the quickest – the ones that sneak up on you,” Sarah says in her blog, Inkymole.
Art Director Mac Lewis had seen Sarah’s covers for Sight & Sound Magazine and wanted something similar for Playboy. Sarah was given a list of feature articles and nine different shots of the model, any of which could end up being used for the cover. Since the image was still undecided, Sarah had to create type that would fit around any of the poses. Once the final shot was chosen, Sarah worked with Mac to fit the type as neatly as possible around the body shape and the result is a knockout. Playboy head honcho Hugh Hefner personally put his stamp of approval on the cover. In less than a month, Sarah’s illustrations were on magazine shelves all across the US. This issue is the first illustrated Playboy cover in 23 years and part of the magazine’s move to freshen its look. With this cover, Sarah J. Coleman kicks off a new creative era of Playboy that calls on the old school sophisticated sexuality the iconic magazine is so well known for.
