I got contracted (is that the right word when it’s part of your full-time job? Almost certainly not) at work to design the first of what would be a series of special sections containing lots and lots of puzzles, crosswords, Jumbles, and other pre-Sudoku newspaper amusements.

I figured I’d do some colorful theme thing in the background (as opposed to just bland page after bland page of random puzzles crammed in), but the salespeople voted the idea down because it made it harder to create and sell ad space.

The final result of the section? Yep, bland page after bland page of random puzzles crammed against each other. Luckily, my schedule got me out of doing the pages and I only had to design the cover illustration (the fun part), which I like and which you can view above.

Epilogue: The section tanked with editors, who never considered purchasing it once they realized they could more or less recreate the layout in a few minutes with assets they already owned. I’m not saying I predicted that. I am writing it right here, though.