The founder of Atlanta's now-defunct alternative weekly, Poets, Artists & Madmen, Steve Hedberg was the perfect fit for Richmond magazine when the Virginia Commonwealth University grad moved back in 2000.

Now its creative director he seems to revel in the variety of his work, which has led the city magazine to a number of state and national awards in design.

“One day you're doing a food shoot and the next, the mayoral candidates — it's a great spectrum,” says Hedberg, once the kid in the back of the class drawing robots, Bugs Bunny and even portraits of his teachers.

The son of a foreign-service officer, he was born in Pakistan and lived in the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Liberia before making a permanent move to the United States at the age of 15. But it was when Hedberg saw the Lewis Collection at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts at 17 that he forged an understanding and connection with abstract art that informs his work today.

A member of the museum's Business Council, he has volunteered his services to the print portion of the Muse Awards, a celebration of business and creativity. “Some people don't consider art a fundamental of the learning process, but I think that it is,” says Hedberg, a true believer in creativity and art, especially with youth.

A member of the communications committee for Art 180, he curated “Side Streets” for Richmond magazine as a benefit and has donated his own art to Art Karma, Art 180's silent auction. Hedberg's paintings have been shown at Rentz and the Glave-Kocen Gallery and can be seen at www.stevehedberg.com.