In 2010, DJ Stout and Barrett Fry of Pentagram’s Austin office redesigned LMU Magazine (then called Vistas), the magazine of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Stout and Fry also created an online version of the publication and an LMU Magazine app, and they have been designing the magazine, along with LMU’s art director Maureen Pacino and editor Joe Wakelee-Lynch, ever since. Their distinctive approach to the magazine’s cover takes advantage of the fact that most university and alumni magazines don’t need to run a full-page ad on the back cover, as commercial publications usually do. The use of both the front and back covers, sometimes with a single image that wraps around the magazine, and sometimes with two images that play off one another, is a big part of LMU Magazine’s visual personality. The Fall 2013 issue includes a feature on LMU alumnus Van Partible, who created the cartoon classic Johnny Bravo while he was a student, and the cover features Partible on the front cover and his creation on the back, looking strikingly similar. “At first Maureen thought my cover concept was totally nuts, but she gave it a chance,” says Stout, who adds that the LMU staff is “always open to new ideas.”
The documentary features dreamlike animation sequences by Film Club of Th1ng Th2ng.