Ryan Olbrysh

Cover design for the November 24, 2011 issue of Las Vegas Weekly.

In 2011, Anthony Marshall was a standout player on the UNLV Men's Basketball team, which made the list of things the Weekly staff was thankful for that year. This issue would come out on Thanksgiving Day, so we wanted to pose Mr. Marshall with a napkin-bib and a giant turkey leg.

Since we were only given a few minutes with him—and also because I wanted to exaggerate the size of the turkey so it would stand out in his oversized mitt—I decided we'd just shoot him without the turkey leg and I'd Photoshop one in later. (The photographer, Beverly Poppe, had a lightbulb box so we just had him grip onto that.)

After the shoot I went to Whole Foods and bought a chicken leg (turkey, chicken…close enough) and carved a nice looking bite out of it. I shot it on my kitchen counter, clipped it out in Photoshop, added a little steam coming off of it and positioned it in his hand.

I would have loved if we'd been able to capture this image with one click of the shutter and no digital trickery, but I never wanted logistics, time or budget constraints to prevent us from creating a memorable image, and I think we got one here.

Cover design for the August 14, 2014 issue of Vegas Seven.

As someone who sits on the design side of the editorial masthead, it's probably no surprise that I have a less-is-more approach to headlines, plus lines, and any sort of text on a magazine cover.

While I certainly understand the usefulness of plugging additional content on the book's cover, its prime piece of real estate, I was always overjoyed when an editor would say, "Let's keep it simple this week." This was not one of those weeks, as we had a feature package that was a collection of shorter pieces that needed to be mentioned on the cover.

A tower of books and various school supplies seemed like an image that would be visually interesting, as well as being a simple way to handle a fair amount of extra text.

After gathering some books I had around the house, I took a trip to Office Depot for some spiral notebooks, folders, binders, a pencil box and, most importantly, tiny stickers that said "Wow," "Great," "Super" and "A+."

After arranging the stack and having it photographed, I removed what was currently on the books' spines (the orange book on top was a Chicago Manual of Style) and created custom spines using the text I was given by my editor. I think I even asked for more cover lines that week, since I was having such a good time putting this cover together.

Cover design for the December 18, 2014 issue of Vegas Seven.

I commissioned Kirsten Ulve to illustrate this same-sex marriage piece for Vegas Seven's 2014 "Story of the Year" cover. I highly recommend checking out Kirsten's website.

Cover design for the December 15, 2011 issue of Las Vegas Weekly.

Stock imagery is something I turn to only if Plans A and B don't work out. This cover was a case where there was no time to commission an illustration, and the photo set I had to work with yielded no viable cover images.

This stock image had the drama I was looking for, but the original photo had a light blue sky. I replaced that with an orange background to match the orange shirts or jumpsuits that a lot of search and rescue teams wear.

I still felt there was something missing, so I dropped in the vector helicopter image with the hairline rule/lifeline extending down toward the drowning person.

Even though I'm never thrilled when I have to resort to stock imagery, I've learned that I can still put together a cover that is striking and memorable.

Cover design for the October 9, 2014 issue of Vegas Seven.

The feature was a collection of profiles on Las Vegas performers as they transitioned into second careers.

Caroline Lauzon, who was profiled in the issue, is a Cirque du Soleil performer who also works as a Marketing and Events Coordinator for Water Beauties, a production company that specializes in synchronized swimming. She is also a former member of the Canadian national diving team, so she was totally at ease under water.

Since I wanted a straight-on shot of the group, the photographer, Anthony Mair, would need to be near the bottom of the pool, so floating on the surface with a snorkel wasn't an option. Instead of using a scuba tank or rigging up an extra long snorkel, Anthony decided he'd just hold his breath and pop up to the surface when he needed to.

Caroline and the swimmers headed down first to get in position, and 10 or 15 seconds later Anthony swam down and snapped a few frames. We repeated this process about a dozen times and wound up with a really nice shot.

Cover design for the June 9, 2011 issue of Las Vegas Weekly.

This issue featured things that the Weekly staff believed Las Vegas was missing. In many ways, the cover designed itself.

I always enjoy the opportunity to step away from my computer, pull out the old X-Acto blade, and use my "hand skills" (which is what the instructor called them in the "Keyline and Paste-Up" class I took in the early '90s).

And in case you were wondering … A Las Vegas Ikea opened in 2016, and we now have two water parks. (I haven't been to either so I can't say whether they're "kick ass" or not.) There are still no plans for a subway system, but the Oakland Raiders are considering a move to Las Vegas. And last year we were awarded an NHL franchise (the Las Vegas Golden Knights), which will begin play in 2017, so I guess that will have to do for now, sports fans.

Cover design for the February 24, 2011 issue of Las Vegas Weekly.

When I put this image together I had about a hundred Facebook friends, and all of them appear on this cover. Since I needed a few more faces to fill in the photo boxes, I borrowed some of my editor's friends.

Needless to say, this was a popular cover around the office and on social media (as I tagged everyone when I posted this cover on Facebook). Everyone should be on a magazine cover at least once in their life, right?

In regard to the text/post area … John Katsilometes wrote the feature story, Sarah Feldberg was the Weekly's editor at the time, and the publisher was Bruce Spotleson (who would never say things like "Hells yeah!").

Cover design for the January 2, 2014 issue of Vegas Seven.

Aside from the "Free | January 2, 2014" line, this cover is made up entirely of pieces created with a 3-D printer.

If you are an editor who likes to tweak cover lines right up until press time, this concept is not your friend. If you are a designer who wants your editor to lock in their cover lines and skip the endless rewrites, you'll wish you could 3-D print every cover.

Cover design for the April 19, 2012 issue of Las Vegas Weekly.

I commissioned Mitch O'Connell, "The World's Best Artist," for this Summer Movie Preview illustration.

I always look for opportunities where the main art can interact with the magazine's logo in some way, so I thought it was nice of Spiderman to shoot his web at the W in Weekly. Thanks, Spidey!

Cover design for the August 20, 2015 issue of Vegas Seven.

This photograph was taken inside the warehouse of CraftHaus, a Las Vegas craft brewer. As far as warehouses go, it was a tight space, with little room to maneuver.

The photo's original background consisted of stacks of palettes, boxes, and brewing equipment, which I knew would be difficult to place text over. I opted to drop in a green brick wall to simplify the image.

At the time of the shoot, all of the kegs on hand were empty, so if head brewer Steph Cope stood on them, it was likely the whole stack would collapse. We wound up positioning a ladder behind the kegs and then I Photoshopped it out of the background for the final image.

This cover was a good reminder that I can zero in on the parts of a photo that work and modify those that don't.

Cover design for the January 20, 2011 issue of Las Vegas Weekly.

As you can see from my initial sketch, I had intended to show a giant pair of scissors snipping the trapeze artists' ropes. (Yes, those are scissors, not the beak of a woodpecker.) The scissors turned out to be too much of a visual distraction, so I opted for the clean cut line that an X-Acto blade would create. 

Cover design for the April 16, 2015 issue of Vegas Seven.

The inspiration for the look of this cover (about a solar plant in Southern Nevada) was the 1997 sci-fi film Gattaca. I love the sepia tints that are used during scenes that take place outdoors (see images below), and wanted to bring that same feel to this photo by giving the sky a golden hue.

Cover design for the November 29, 2012 issue of Las Vegas Weekly.

Whenever I felt like an image was intriguing enough to stand on its own, I would push for a "no text" cover. I rarely won that battle and this cover was one for my loss column.

After my editor gave me the "no go" on the no text option, I sulked for a bit and then decided on the asterisk by Holly Madison's pregnant belly. I also recommended just a sentence or two of very small text in the lower righthand corner. (As you can see, I lost that battle as well.)

Even though I wasn't able to persuade my editor to go my way on this one, I still like the cover's simplicity and felt it was really eye-catching when I eventually saw it out on newsstands. 

Cover design for the May 19, 2016 issue of Vegas Seven.

When I started working as a graphic designer in the mid 1990s, I was totally into the idea of collecting fonts and building a gigantic type library and would snag every font I could get my hands on. After many years I realized that most of these typefaces sucked and I'd never use 90% of them. I mean, did I seriously need 12 different versions of that blocky "Snow Cap" font, let alone an italic version of it? No.

So earlier this year I set out to pare down my library to only the essentials. I looked at all 30,000 fonts and asked myself: "Will there ever be a situation where I use this?" The answer to 29,550 of them was a resounding No.

When I began working on this cover, which was used to announce the lineup for the Life Is Beautiful Festival, the only direction I was given was to try something text based. So, I went with the rock-club-green-room-wall-sticker-dump look, which afforded me the opportunity to utilize a handful of my chosen 450 typefaces. It was a fun cover to put together, considering that 99% of the covers I designed used only two fonts, three max.

Cover design for the September 13, 2012 issue of Las Vegas Weekly.

I'm a big fan of the over-the-top facial expressions in Howard Schatz's "In Character" photos, which appeared in Vanity Fair for a handful of years (see images below). I'd always wanted to try something similar and singer/songwriter Michael Grimm (who won the fifth season of America's Got Talent) seemed like he'd make a good guinea pig.

We emailed before the shoot and he liked the concept. When I met him in person he was really quiet and laid-back, so I was a little worried that he wouldn't be able to pull off the range of expressions I was looking for. Guess I didn't have to sweat it.

Cover design for the September 3, 2009 issue of Las Vegas Weekly.

The Afghan Raiders were a live electronic band from Las Vegas. This cover shoot took place early in my tenure as the Weekly's Art Director and, at the time, I was still finding my footing when it came to pitching photo concepts.

When I emailed the guys in the band I asked if they had any thoughts about the kind of shoot they'd like to do. They suggested what you see here—an idea I really liked—so we went with it.

For me, it was a valuable (and maybe obvious) lesson to learn: it's never a bad idea to check with the subject to see what they'd do if the shoot were totally up to them. A lot of times I was told, "I'm fine with whatever you want to do." But there were definitely instances when a great concept was the result of being open to ideas other than my own.

Cover design for the August 15, 2013 issue of Vegas Seven.

One of the working headlines I was given for this cover was, "Are We Testing Our Kids To Death?" I wish I could share all of the rough sketches I did around that headline—I thought they were pretty funny in a grim sort of way—but trust me, they were … dark.

Once I'd created this Scantron sheet, I printed it out, filled in the dots by hand and scanned it back in. There was something strangely gratifying about penciling in all those circles in a totally random way, with no silly questions to worry about.

Cover design for the May 31, 2012 issue of Las Vegas Weekly.

From a visual standpoint, it's difficult to go wrong with a subject like Melanie Troxler, aka "Felony Melony," the singer for the Las Vegas band The Objex. Photographer Maryanne Bilham took so many great shots that I wish we'd been able to run a dozen different cover versions for this issue.

What made this cover memorable for me is that Melanie was not only easy to work with—which is not always the case on shoots—but she's one of the nicest people I've met.

Working at a weekly publication can be stressful—the speed at which things move often makes you feel like you never get the chance to catch your breath—so when you have a great shoot with good people (cliché coming in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ) it makes it all worth it.

Cover design for the February 19, 2015 issue of Vegas Seven, featuring legendary UNLV men's basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian.

Less is sometimes more … especially when someone dies.

Cover design for the July 21, 2011 issue of Las Vegas Weekly, featuring a collection of travel stories.

You never know what you'll need on the road, so it's best to pack the logo.

Cover design for the January 24, 2013 issue of Las Vegas Weekly.

Local Las Vegas band Caravels had a singer who, it's fair to say, screamed more than he sang, so I thought the magnifying glass in front of his mouth would be a good way to play up his vocal stylings.

Cover design for the July 5, 2012 issue of Las Vegas Weekly.

If you were into Hair Metal in the 1980s, Circus was your magazine (see examples below). This cover was my tribute to that era.

My publisher hated it. He felt it deviated too much from the way our covers typically looked, but I was confident in the concept. While I don't recall my exact reply to him, it was probably along the lines of, "Well, I wanted to try something different, and what I've done reflects the vibe of the era. If you don't like it, that's cool, but we do 52 issues a year and it'll be off the stands in a week."

Cover design for the November 25, 2010 issue of Las Vegas Weekly.

The Jabbawockeez are a hip-hop dance crew that performs regularly in Las Vegas. Between May and August 2010 they had a show at the Monte Carlo Resort and Casino, and made the list of things the Weekly staff was thankful for that year.

This is another image I wish I could say was captured with one click of the shutter and no digital trickery, but that wasn't the case. Instead, it was digitally pieced together from a dozen different shots.

Norman Rockwell used a similar method when he painted his famous Thanksgiving scene, Freedom From Want. He photographed all of the people separately and then painted them together into one holiday scene. If the process of building an image from many individual parts was good enough for him, it's good enough for me. 

Cover design for the February 23, 2012 issue of Las Vegas Weekly.

Mike Tofanelli provided the illustrations for this old-time boxing poster-style cover. After I laid it all out and received word that there would be no more changes to the text, I printed it out, crinkled it up, stepped on it a few times and scanned it back in. Voilà!