July’s cover of "Wired" magazine, shipped to 16-year-old Matthew Brace of Sully Station in Centreville, was "his" issue. Not his subscription, or even that he bought it. It was "his" for the fact that his face was on the cover.
For those who picked up a copy off of the shelves or who are regular subscribers, Matthew Brace is not some nickname given to Optimus Prime (who graced the newsstand covers in July), but rather a junior at Westfield High School who won a contest through "Wired" magazine, which caters mostly to the techno-savvy and "uber-geeks."
The first 5,000 entries submitted to the contest were rewarded with their face on a personal cover of an individual publication, and had it shipped to their houses as proof.
NOT JUST any picture though, Matt used his project from his computer graphics class, which equaled about five hours of total work time, using such programs as Adobe PhotoShop and Illustrator. With cell-shading techniques, he turned a normal portrait picture into a stylized poster of himself, which was then submitted and had printed. Matt kept this a secret from his parents, Tom and Diane Brace, until the issue actually arrived and was "in his hands."
Matt is currently taking a plethora of computer graphic and graphic design courses at the Institute for the Arts at Robinson Secondary School. So is there a future in the graphic arts for Mr. Brace?
"No," he says, "I’m thinking about majoring in engineering in college … doing project design work as a technical designer." Graphic art is more of "a hobby … I could see all the cool stuff they were doing in movies with different software … it looked like fun." Matt, who has already done projects through his engineering class at school with Lockheed Martin, hopes to work in a similar field as his father someday who is a project designer himself. Who knows, with results like this before he even graduates high school, maybe this won’t be the last time Matt is able to find his face staring back at him from the cover of a magazine.