Pentagram's DJ Stout: There Needs To Be More Storytelling In Graphic Design
"Everything we do is about storytelling," Stout says.
The cover of Texas Monthly's July 1992 issue features an portrait of then governor Ann Richards sitting on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. She's dressed head to toe white leather, her hair is coiffed in her signature gray bouffant, and she stares confidently at the camera. To DJ Stout, the cover's designer, this portrait of Richards, 60 years old at the time, was "the perfect metaphor for capturing her salty wit and irreverent personality," he once wrote. In a fleeting glance, readers knew it wasn't business as usual at the Texas statehouse. The audacious concept is also one of the perfect examples of Stout's evocative, eclectic approach to visual design.