Best of Alaska Magazine Cover
Thanks to art director Monica Sterchi-Lowman, I was honored with the opportunity to design the July 2024 cover for Alaska Business Magazine featuring their annual business award series Best of Alaska. Thanks also to the fabulous team at Dive Alaska who answered many of my questions about wild scuba adventures here and around the world as well as the Alaska Dive Search Rescue & Recovery Team who shared their expertise about the amazing search and rescue divers working as volunteers statewide. Please support AK Dive Rescue with a donation, learn to explore the underwater world with a scuba class, and buy a copy of Alaska Business Magazine.
About The Cover
The Best of Alaska Business winners thrive in difficult environments. From that observation, artist Emily Longbrake increased the difficulty by taking away the air. Inspired by her love of scuba diving, Longbrake invites readers to plunge into aqua incognita. The setting is not, as might appear, a coral reef. Although Alaska does host deep-water coral gardens, Longbrake envisions a scene closer to shore. Specifically, the littoral caves of Southeast. Carved into limestone of the Prince of Wales Archipelago, caves above and below the waterline are troves of climate clues, ancient animals, and human history. The artist sees a connection between those habitats and the modern-day business environment. “When I work on design projects in Alaska, they have a different context than working out of state,” she says. “Our environment is very different. You can get away with some things up here that you can’t anywhere else!”
Hidden Categories: Cover Details
Alaska is the Great Land and, let no one forget, the Great Water too. Off the state’s shores, the briny deep hides such wonders as the world’s largest canyon (by area), Bering Canyon just north of Unalaska, and the deepest, Zhemchug Canyon farther northwest, just this side of the maritime boundary with Russia.
In Southeast, another underwater wonder: coastal caves where Ice Age people may have lived. An expedition last summer scanned the area to identify archaeological sites, and this research inspired artist Emily Longbrake’s design of this month’s cover.
Mixing science with whimsy, Longbrake also patterned her design after illustrator Ed Emberley’s Caldecott Medal-winning works and the Where’s Waldo series by Martin Hanford. Packed with detail, such images dare viewers to scrutinize every square inch. In that vein, Longbrake populated a private fantasy world, or “paracosm”, with puckish, offbeat examples of the Best of Alaska Business at work. Longbrake says, “Alaskans seem to thrive in some really challenging environments. Who says you can’t have an underwater food truck?” Play along and spot the Best of Alaska Business categories.
Off the Cuff
With photos by Kerry Tasker
The owner of Emily Longbrake Art & Design flits among thirty different hobbies. One moment, she might be gardening; the next, planning a scuba diving trip. She also turned one hobby into a job. “Sometimes I get to color or draw all day,” like a little kid’s fondest wish, Emily Longbrake says. While growing up in Alaska, “If somebody wanted a poster for school, I would be the one making it,” she recalls. Longbrake then worked at a farm, a lighthouse, a bookstore, a gym, and other places, “all of which I ruled out as good jobs for me.” Because her father was self-employed, she says, “He planted the seed that I could run my own business one day.” A generalist in terms of style, Longbrake adapts to her clients’ needs. “I’m doing something different every day,” she says. Often, she helps small businesses establish their graphic identity, translating between the client’s work and what the world sees. She adds, “It’s fun to be that translator.” More of Longbrake’s works are on exhibit at the International Gallery of Contemporary Art and Tiny Gallery, both in Downtown Anchorage, and Bunnell Street Arts Center in Homer.
Alaska Business:What do you do in your free time?
Emily Longbrake: Art gets to be both my job and my fun activity. I do a lot of volunteering and try to get outside with my family.
AB: Is there a skill you’re currently developing or have always wanted to learn?
Longbrake: I’m learning Spanish right now. And learning to scuba dive; I’m a baby scuba diver.
AB: What’s the most daring thing you’ve ever done?
Longbrake: Donating my kidney to a stranger, who I hope is doing very well. Also becoming a mom through adoption.
AB: What are you superstitious about?
Longbrake: If I cannot stop thinking about something, I know it must be important.
AB: What supernatural experiences have you had?
Longbrake: I got to swim in the ocean in a phosphorescent algae bloom. I cannot explain how magical and wonderful that was. It definitely felt like being on another planet.
AB: What’s your favorite local restaurant?
Longbrake: Naruto Ramen has a hold over my daughter and me: we love it!
AB: Dead or alive, who would you like to see perform live in concert?
Longbrake: James Brown.
AB: What’s your greatest extravagance?
Longbrake: Being able to be self-employed as an artist feels like a huge privilege.
AB: What’s your best attribute and worst attribute?
Longbrake: I get really into things. That can be a blessing and a curse, depending on what I choose to be into at the time. Most of the time, it’s allowed me to work really hard, but sometimes I get distracted.
AB: What book is currently on your nightstand?
Longbrake: I have about fifteen. The Complete Stories by Clarice Lispector… Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins… Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, which I reread every ten years.
AB: What charity or cause are you passionate about?
Longbrake: Alaska Dive Search Rescue and Recovery Team… I also donated my kidney in August 2023, so I’m a big fan of Donate Life.
AB: What’s the first thing you do when you get home after a long day at work?
Longbrake: Feed everybody… Dog, cat, chickens, my daughter, and my husband. Probably in that order of hunger urgency.
AB: What vacation spot is on your bucket list?
Longbrake: Antarctica.
AB: If you could domesticate a wild animal, what animal would it be?
Longbrake: A walrus. They have this mysterious life underwater that we don’t know much about. They love to hang out on the beach with their friends and get sunburned; they love to eat fresh seafood… I think we would get along great.
