I would like to introduce you to the talent behind the beautiful layouts and designs you enjoy on every page of each CMM issue — meet our graphic designer, Dennis Craighead! Dennis joined the CMM team as a freelancer for some part-time ad design in 2001; 23 years later, he is designing the entire magazine, both ads and editorial.

Not only is Dennis one of two men in an office otherwise full of women, but he is also a laid-back, type B personality in an office full of type AAAs … God bless him. Whenever the rest of us are running around with our pants on fire trying to meet the monthly print deadline, Dennis leans back in his chair and says, “Somehow, some way, it will be okay.” Additionally, Dennis could have had an alternate career in stand-up comedy, so our team reaps the benefits of his wit and ability to see humor in even the mundane as he keeps us laughing through every production cycle.

Dennis is also an ardent music devotee. My office is right next to his, and on any given day the tunes can range from heavy metal to opera, Jesus Christ Superstar to Chopin. In this issue on page 46, Clayton Trudor has composed an interesting local history piece detailing the Pink Floyd “Dark Side of the Moon” concert held at the Township Auditorium in April 1972. From this album and a later Atlanta concert that he attended, Dennis became an avid Pink Floyd fan.

Q: Tell me about your fandom with Pink Floyd.

A: I was mesmerized the first time I heard “Dark Side of the Moon” in ninth grade. I just loved it. I remember thinking, “Wow this is really different from radio rock ’n’ roll.” I ran out and got all their previous albums. Then I saw them premiere “Wish You Were Here” in Atlanta in ’75, and that became my personal soundtrack for my college days.

Q: What is your favorite kind of music? 

A: I have no taste at all; I honestly like it all. The jukebox in my head plays everything. I played in the high school band, sang in the church choir, and played the air guitar in a little garage band with my friends when we were teenagers.

Q: Where did you work in high school?

A:  Most of high school I worked at The Riverboat Tea Room, the restaurant upstairs in J.B. White’s at Richland Mall. The boss made me work in the back so the little old ladies would not have to see my ponytail. Anyway, over the years he realized that all the friends-of-friends he hired knew each other from the youth group at Covenant Presbyterian Church. If you wanted a job, you just told him you went to that church and you were in. We counted up somewhere between 30 and 40 people from Covenant who worked at that restaurant in the ’70s.

Q: Tell me about going to college at Ringling School of Art & Design in Sarasota.

A: Yes, those Ringlings. Long ago it seems everything in Sarasota was built with circus money and named after one of the brothers. And there really was a clown school just down the street.

Thank you, Dennis, for all of the amazing talent you pour into making CMM layouts and ads so beautiful! One of my favorite comments you often say when the magazine is almost ready for the printer is, “We’ll all be heroes.” From all of the CMM team, be assured, you are always our hero!

Sincerely,

Margaret Clay