The Day Job -- by Guest Erin Jang

I work at Esquire magazine as the Associate Art Director. I design layouts for the stories in the magazine and commission artwork to accompany the articles. One of the reasons I've always admired Esquire (along with the writing) is that the design aims to be smart, conceptual and forward-thinking, and the magazine isn't afraid of evolving. You can see some of the work I've done at Esquire here.





One thing I love about every creative job I've had is that I've been able to incorporate an element of the handmade into my work. At Esquire, that happens on the Table of Contents pages where I collage together photos from different stories in the magazine and create something new. A friend recently asked me if those collages were done digitally. He looked horrified when I explained to him that I actually cut out tiny strips of paper with an X-Acto knife and glued them together, piece by piece. As so much of design is digital and on the computer, I find it satisfying to take a break and make things by hand.

One of the most satisfying jobs I had was at the Seattle Times a few years ago. I followed my husband out there for work for a year and got a position at the Times illustrating and designing the covers to their weekend going-out sections. I love incorporating different layers into my illustration (fabric, photos, vintage clip art, watercolor and gouache).






An old coworker, another art director, used to say to me, "Erin, can you believe we get paid to do the work that we love?" To be able to be creative and have fun and to make a living making things – I feel so fortunate to be able to do this.