Feature Concepts

The magazine's feature well commonly consisted of two pieces and a long-form interview. Topics covered in the two "wild-card" features were typically elaborations of the themes of our departments (health, food, sports, fashion, arts, business, product reviews, etc.). These pieces were often a collaboration of the entire editorial department.

One example of this was a multi-piece package regarding the 2004 race for Indiana governor. Local issues up for debate, short biographies, brief interviews with both candidates, etc. I was assigned a trivia piece on former governors. Though it's a reads as a breezy "fun facts" collection, the piece was actually the result of in-depth research on the official biographies of each governor, viewable only at the state's historical center. The result is a light-hearted, but thoroughly-researched, "did you know?" collection of Indiana political trivia.

Another collaborative effort was a heavily-researched and extremely difficult sports quiz I co-composed for our annual Indianapolis Colts preview. The idea for such an impossible test was taken from the movie Diner, where a Batimore man makes his bride-to-be take and pass an excruciating exam on his beloved Baltimore Colts before he will marry her. Since the Indianapolis franchise is a relocation of this same team, we wrote our own impossible test for our readers, and also administered it to various local sportswriters, talk show hosts and former team members.

Many local publications run features on the Indiana State Fair during the month of August. Often, they are the same ideas and interviews rehashed and repackaged. This idea, however, had not been done before in an Indianapolis publication, and was subsequently copied over the next few years. I asked four notable Indianapolis chefs and one reputable bartender to invent their own gourmet reinterpretations of the most popular state fair foods, such as corn dogs and lemon shake-ups. The resulting feature was a great success and showcased the magazine's ability to produce an attractive, informative, and entertaining feature on a landmark event in a completely new way. This feature was solely my project from conception to production.

Another feature that I conceived and produced expanded on our monthly product review section, "IMM Recommends." For a July issue, I put together a two-page review of various fireworks. Though the humorous feature's primary focus was to entertain, it offered product information as well. The irreverent, snarky prose and engaging design of the piece is very evocative of the overall mission of the magazine.
IMM Recommends: Fireworks Edition (Image)
IMM Recommends: Fireworks Edition (text)