KATIE STEVENSON

REVISITS THE MAG

WE RECALL YOU HAVING TWO DIFFICULT COVERS WHEN YOU FIRST STARTED…

My first cover was a triple embossed, gold-foil Zelda cover, which was a real baptism of fire! I’d never set up that kind of artwork before, I was so nervous I’d mess it up! That was swiftly followed by the foil gatefold Sonic cover which was a challenge too but was really fun to design. Both turned out well, and over a decade later they still remain some of my favourite pieces of work.

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE ASPECT OF WORKING ON THE MAGAZINE?

Despite not being a gamer, I really enjoyed diving into the weird and wonderful worlds of the games and bringing them to life on the page. RG was fun to produce as it involved so much bespoke design, which allowed me to be really creative.

AND WHAT DID YOU FIND CHALLENGING?

The deadlines!

DO YOU HAVE A RETRO GAMER ANECDOTE TO SHARE?

Whilst working on RG, I was nominated for the much-coveted Designer Of The Year award. I was thrilled and honoured to be nominated, as the company was teeming with brilliant and much more experienced designers. Anyway, it was the Christmas party and it’s fair to say I was pretty trashed and the time had come to announce the award… They read out my name and I instantly jumped up, ready to go claim my award, when I realised, to my horror, that my colleagues were crying with laughter and were hastily trying to pull me back down into my seat! My name was the first on the list of nominees and I’d stood up before they’d even read the rest of the list! I was mortified and wanted to crawl under the table… They carried on reading out the other nominees and to my delight and relief announced that I had, indeed won the award. I never lived it down though and it remains one of the most cringeworthy moments of my life!