a closer look at

theLAnd’s 110 Greatest LA Albums List

Revisiting this monstrous layout, noting some fun behind-the-scenes/Easter eggs, and giving you a peek into how I approach conceptual design

opening spread



Since I drew inspiration for the headline from Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), I wanted to make the opening art evocative of the classic Spaghetti Western’s film poster as well as the paperback cover of Quentin Tarantino’s novelization of his film, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood (2019) which had come out in June 2021.

Fun Fact: Despite the band not making it onto the list, Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine can be seen among the other artists/bands. This is the third Megadeth Easter egg I snuck into the magazine.

Here are the others:

Why did I do this? Cuz Megadeth rules, obvi. Also, since I was the one who was designing all this, I had to find tiny ways to entertain myself. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

inside spread



If you’re asking yourself, “Damn, I wonder if all that formatting to make sure the artist, album title and record label/year stand out, while also making sure all the columns lined up at the bottom, AND making sure the album cover sits nestled in the album blurb, took a lot of meticulous finessing in order to look so flawless?

The answer is: Yes. Yes, it did. -____-

the top 10



For the final ten albums, I hired some of my favorite LA-based artists/friends to join me in creating unique pieces