All Access

Job no:81378-5 Title : RP_All Access (New PB Verdions) Client : Pro-vision

Scn :

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175 Size : 203.2(w)254(h)mm Co : M6 (mac J)

Dept : DTP D/O : 22.10.05 (Job no:000000 D/O : 00.00.04 Co: CM0)

5th Black

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19

B

orn in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1969, and raised in the suburban sprawl of nearby

Severna Park, Gaffney discovered his interest in graphic design in one epiphanic

moment at the age of eight. “The day I found the row of white and green Worldbook

Encyclopedias was when I knew I wanted to be a graphic artist—not that I actually knew

what a graphic artist was.” He wasn’t content just to breeze through this information, though.

He wanted to absorb it. “I began my own atlas, copying the population maps one by one,

feeling empowered by reiterating someone else’s charting of human settlement.” Projects

such as this honed Gaffney’s drawing skills, and his new talent found an immediate and

enthusiastic audience. “I drew for purely Pavlovian reasons. My parents indulged me

completely. Who would object to their kid holed up in his room copying encyclopedias?”

He grew fascinated by periodicals. “I inhaled my parents’ magazines—Reader’s Digest, Popular

Science, The Baltimore Sun, even Good Housekeeping.” Despite his young age, he displayed

a startling awareness of stylistic nuance. “I found the power of the printed word irresistible and

would spend hours reading articles of no relevance to me whatsoever. ‘We Rate the Top Ten

Microwaves!’ for example. I’d notice the subtle changes in typography and how the voice

changed with the content. I sensed the setting of priorities—for the magazine itself, and for

the culture at large—and wanted to understand how they were formed. For me they were as

much eye candy as a conduit to greater knowledge, a tapping-in to society’s conversation.”

As he got older, Gaffney continued to draw. “I was basically a human scanner. I eagerly took

on every art project high school could offer: drawing cartoons for the school paper, designing

the school arts magazine, painting corny murals, embellishing the backs of leather jackets

with logos of bands I had never heard of. I also conned my teachers into letting me present

reports as magazines and posters, so I could conceal my disinterest in the subject under

a layer of flashy graphics.”

GAFFNEY

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EVAN

Raised on a diet of pop culture graphics and battle-hardened

from designing coupon ads for the Pennysaver, Evan Gaffney

has created book covers that are among the most elegant

and stylish designs to emerge from the post–Chip Kidd generation.

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