1. 24 Reasons to Love Richmond (Feb. 8, 2006)

For this Valentine’s Day issue, we decided to focus on one of the 24 reasons to love Richmond (tobacco). Style Weekly Photographer Scott Elmquist had this beautiful photo of a very seductive cigar smoker to which I added the heart-shaped smoke ring using the software program Photoshop.

2. The Quest (Nov. 17, 1992)

I’ve been a fan of painter Nancy Witt since high school. So when the editor of this package of stories told me that the artist would allow us to use one of her paintings for the cover, I jumped at the chance. It was a perfect illustration for the spiritual journeys that the issue described.

3. Does Richmond Have a Leadership Vacuum? (April 28, 1998)

I went through a collage phase in the ’90s. Some were horrible, but a few, like this one, were successful. Originally, the inside back of the shirt was visible in the leaderless suit. I later added the clouds and sky to increase the volume of the echo of the little guy’s beckoning.

4. The Score (Dec. 31, 2003)

This was the year the remnants of Tropical Storm Gaston blew through the area. Photographer Scott Elmquist rented a huge fan for the photo shoot, but even then, we just couldn’t get the right feeling we were going for. So we pre-broke the umbrella, taped some score sheets to the model and then added more flying papers later in Photoshop.

5. Original Tales (Oct. 15, 2005)

For our third annual fiction contest, I attempted to marry the proverbial “fish story” with fiction writing. The combination of typewriter keys and fish scales seemed to resonate, and I was honored to receive a first-place cover-design award for the work at the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies’ national contest.

6. Great Expectations (Aug. 22, 2003)

The promise of 1.93 million more square footage of shopping space with the addition of Short Pump Town Center and Stony Point Fashion Park had consumers and retailers on edge. The mannequins, unclothed and under construction themselves, look longingly to the horizon waiting for the new malls to come online so they can find out what they (and Richmond) will be wearing.

7. Pushed and Pulled (Dec. 12. 2002)

Doctor Doolittle’s pushmi/pullyu was the inspiration for this cover. It seemed like the perfect mascot for a year that left us feeling pushed and pulled.

8. Jesus on the Job (Dec. 15, 2004)

I went through many variations of this office-supply crucifix before settling on this one to illustrate a story about the growing number of Christians in the workplace wearing their religion on their sleeves. The suggestion of a crown of thorns made by the pushpins was a welcomed accident.