Each year, CITY Magazine holds a Best of Rochester readers’ poll, a popular thing amongst alt-newsweeklies across the country. Depending on who you ask, it’s either a completely unfair popularity contest or a huge boon to local businesses who are trying to get their name out there. Either way, it’s a big event, and 2022’s book was the first time we devoted all 72 pages to “Best Of.”

I was the AD on this project and laid out the book. The style was used on our website, across our social media platforms, in our regular email newsletters, and (obviously) all throughout the book. I drew from the image-heavy, tag-based style of early Patagonia editorial spreads, then picked six colors and stuck with ‘em. Please enjoy one of my few successful attempts at getting an all-black design on the cover of CITY Mag.