Some Guy, Whose Initials Are Not TK

One of my favorite types of books to work on are illustrated books--you know, coffee-table books. Design. Visual Art. Culture. Books-as-objects. The kinds of books that will be the last to die, if you believe all that doomsaying about books.

I was looking at a first pass of just such a book, about a certain music festival. Full of really gorgous photography...and disastrous captions.

Every other person's name was misspelled or misidentified.

But then there was my favorite. On a spread with photos of three other people was a photo that looked like this:

(photo by Melanie Parker-Levi, on Flickr)

And the caption read: Some Guy.

I was gobsmacked. My gob. It was smacked, I tell you. I mean, who the hell doesn't know who this guy is? What rock has that person been living under for the past twenty or so years? I realize that perhaps not all the captions were supplied by the author and had to be written by the designer, who may be twenty years old and therefore clueless. But really? Some Guy?

There is a shorthand that we use in this industry for things we either don't know or are waiting to know. That shorthand is "TK." The book was filled with TK information. TKs aplenty. But for some reason TK wasn't good enough for this mystery man?

The first person to comment with Some Guy's identity makes my Monday worthwhile. Do a dumbass designer a favor and tell me who this is.

Love,
Your Copyeditor