Joe Kimberling, magazine art director was 46

Joe Kimberlng, the art director of Los Angeles magazine from 2000 to 2009, died Thursday of complications from cancer. He was 46. Editor Mary Melton, in an appreciation on the Los Angeles website, credits Kimberling as a key architect in the magazine's "metamorphosis over that decade into an award-winning publication with a national presence."

Joe had worked at Entertainment Weekly and for the designer Roger Black (whom he revered, along with Bob Newman) before joining the magazine in 2000. He had an incredible grasp of type and knew how to play with it and talk to it, a knack for developing relationships with illustrators (realize that this was a guy who had a tattoo of artist Chris Ware's character Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth, on his forearm), and an innate talent for creating layouts that could be as stunning in their simplicity as they could be in their complexity....

Joe was way too humble to ever be comfortable with the idea that other designers looked up to him. Three times in five years he took home "Designer of the Year" from the City and Regional Magazine Association and he was also recognized by the Society of Publication Designers and the Type Directors Club, yet he had zero desire to publicly acknowledge the accolades.

The story includes a slideshow of covers by Kimberling. His firm's website.

Photo of Joe Kimberling: Debra DiPaolo