I’m Nick, an art director and designer based in Brooklyn, New York. I shape visual identities and immersive stories for organizations and publications. I drive design strategy on emerging platforms, create brand guidelines, and help lead creative teams. From The New Yorker to The New York Times, I’ve worked with legacy media companies to push boundaries in our ever-evolving world.
Art Direction: Digital Issues
As the creative lead for The New Yorker’s digital issues, I guide how we brand themed collections across platforms to entice readers. This includes overseeing their covers, design, visual strategy, and cross-platform promotion. For an in-depth look, click the covers below.
Art Direction: Multimedia Stories
As technology evolves, I’m interested in its potential to enrich storytelling. Through video, maps, illustration, and photography, I immerse readers in subjects ranging from war crimes investigations to how streaming platforms mold song structure.
Explore more multimedia stories here
Art Direction: Social Media
Using new platforms to expand the reach of reporting and criticism, I translate The New Yorker’s signature long-form journalism for a younger generation. This means overhauling the design system and shaping visual stories across social platforms.
See more social design and art direction here
Art Direction: Columnists
My goal for The New Yorker’s weekly digital columns: make each writer’s work instantly recognizable, create efficient treatments to streamline workflows, and further distinguish pickup photography from commissioned visuals.
See the process behind the columnist branding here
Art Direction: Packages & Series
From fiction and weekly columns to year-end features and podcasts, I work with artists to create identities that set The New Yorker’s editorial offerings apart, highlighting the publication’s dedication to excellence and craft.
I was the creative lead for The Year in Review, a series of more than twenty essays reflecting on the year in culture and beyond. To highlight the recursive nature of looking back at the year, I asked the photographer Andrew B. Myers to work within the constraint of a circle.
See more of the project here
I art directed Season 3 of In The Dark, an investigative series about the killing of twenty civilians in Haditha, Iraq, and the subsequent failure to hold anyone accountable for the crime. The project included an interactive documentary, a podcast, and several digital features.
See more of the project here
Art Direction: The New York Times Print
My goal: create experiences that harness the potential of the printed page, surprising and delighting readers as they flip through their morning paper. I art directed and designed the daily Editorial and Op-Ed pages, as well as the Sunday Review—a weekly 12-14 page section of columns, guest essays, and analysis.
See more print layouts here
Illustration: Editorial
My mission as an artist is to create vivid metaphors that capture the essence of a subject or argument in an unexpected way. I create art for a variety of clients, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, NBC, Barron’s, The Hollywood Reporter, and more.
See more illustration work here
I am an art director, designer, and visual editor working in digital design and multimedia storytelling. Currently the Art Director for The New Yorker dot com, I previously created interactive stories and art directed print at The New York Times. When I’m not working, you can find me rock-climbing in Brooklyn, listening to podcasts, or poring over old magazines.
MAIL → nicholas.p.konrad@gmail.com
IG → @iguessnick
Experience
THE NEW YORKER
Art Director of newyorker.com
I oversee visuals for The New Yorker’s website and manage the brand’s identity across digital, ensuring all imagery is cohesive and compelling across platforms. I create custom digital experiences, commission art, strategize about how to present our stories to maximize engagement and impact, provide feedback and direction to photo editors and associate art directors on framing, photo selection, illustration, layout, and design, while collaborating with editors, developers, and the production teams.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Staff Editor for Design and Multimedia Features
I art directed work for the Opinion section at-large. I conceptualized, designed, illustrated, and developed interactive stories; directed designers in creating the daily Op-Ed and Editorial print pages; and filled in as the art director for The Sunday Review, the Opinion Section’s weekly 12-14 page anthology of columns, guest essays, and analysis. In addition, I commissioned art and provided daily in-house illustration.
VICE
I worked with the Design and Creative teams on experiential installations, animations, logos, branding, pitch decks, merchandise, video and editorial web design; concepted and pitched a show for Viceland; collaborated with several verticals including Noisey, dedicated to up-and-coming music coverage, Motherboard, focusing on the future of technology, and Broadly, highlighting the experiences of women & the LGBTQ+ community.
FREELANCE
Art Director, Designer, Illustrator
I've created illustrations, branding, Virtual Reality immersive concepts, film treatments, promotional materials, posters, podcast artwork, and digital editorial design. Select clients include The New York Times; NYT Open; The New Yorker; NBC Universal; Farrar, Straus and Giroux; The Hollywood Reporter; Barron’s, and more.
Awards & Talks
The Art Director’s Club & One Club for Creativity
Young Guns 22 Winner
The American Society of Magazine Editors
Next Award for Outstanding Achievement by Magazine Journalists Under the Age of 30
Society of News Design
Award of Excellence for Art Direction
Society of Publication Designers
Silver Medal
University of Miami
Lecture on Visual Climate Journalism
School of Visual Arts
Lecture on Editorial Art Direction
School of Visual Arts
Guest Critic
Education
I graduated from Rhode Island School of Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design with honors.
I illustrated the cover for the 99th anniversary issue of The New Yorker, reimagining Eustace Tilley, the dandy who appeared on magazine’s first cover, for the digital age.