If you’ve been paying attention over the past 35 years, you will have noticed the same name under the title Art Director on the masthead of this magazine since its inception in 1981. Although he works behind the scenes and out of the limelight of the oil and gas community, for the past three and a half decades Marc Conly has guided and crafted the look and design of Oil and Gas Investor. He is retiring after this issue.

While we editors pride ourselves on our ability to gain access to industry executives, and the quality of our writing, we know a little secret: Our readers are irresistibly attracted to the visual quality of the magazine.

Conly’s affiliation with Investor began a couple of years before its launch when he was a freelance commercial artist for Hart Publications, which published Western Oil Reporter and the Rocky Mountain Oil & Gas Directory.

One evening in 1980 at a company Christmas party, Hart founder Don Hart told Conly that he and former National Geographic photographer Lowell Georgia were hatching an idea for a publication that would be the National Geographic of the oil and gas industry. After all, most of the trade journals of the day were technically oriented and visually unappealing, often just black and white throughout.

“Don’s sense, prophetically, was that the nature of the business was changing, that the cliché of a guy in a 10-gallon hat, muddy cowboy boots, a big cigar and Rolex wristwatch was giving way to a much more sophisticated investor. He sensed the time was right to come up with a publication that somebody would be proud to have on their coffee table,” Conly said.

When the concept of Investor was born, Hart’s offices had just moved from above the former Greyhound bus terminal in downtown Denver to new, bigger digs near Denver General Hospital.

Hart commissioned a San Francisco design firm to create the magazine’s template, with Conly overseeing production of the first issue. Midway through production, Hart offered Conly the job as full-time art director. “I have a vivid recollection of a sort of suspension of time before I said ‘Yes.’ Maybe it was a realization of the trust Don was placing in me. Or perhaps I did feel some hint of how profoundly it could change the course of my career,” Conly recalled.

The first issue debuted in August 1981.

Conly said he feels strongly that the look and feel of the magazine has been a catalyst of its success. No other energy publication then or since has emphasized or invested as fully in journalistic field photography.

“There was a sensibility that had not been brought to the oilfield before. The objective was to create teamwork between the editor and photographer to demonstrate that Oil and Gas Investor was on the ground in the patch and was familiar with the operators,” Conly said.

“The fact that people stacked Oil and Gas Investor up the way people collected National Geographic suggests that, whatever the research content of the book, there was something people valued in the way it made them feel about themselves.”

Georgia retired in 2011 after 30 years shooting for the magazine.

In addition to photography, from the outset Investor has featured original conceptual art to illustrate the theme of stories, another approach that makes the magazine unique in its space.

“If you can bring sophisticated, visual imagery to the magazine, the audience will appreciate it,” Conly said. “We try to come up with art that is pertinent to the emotional and psychological content of the story. We try to make the reader think about what they’re reading in a visual way other than what they would expect from an industry trade magazine.”

A testament to its timelessness, the original design template has remained largely unchanged over the decades, and the photography and art continue to define its personality.

Conly quipped that his long tenure was because “the paychecks always cleared,” but he acknowledged that the ongoing challenge and teamwork were what kept him locked in.

“It was an interesting job to maintain the quality of the magazine month to month, to engage with the illustrators, to work with all the different editors and writers. It’s a constant interaction with the team; it isn’t a one-person operation.”

With this edition, Conly will have produced 418 issues.

“Don’s and Lowell’s vision has given me something I could hang my hat on this whole time,” he said. “I value literacy, and I value print in the dissemination of knowledge and culture, and to participate in that has always been satisfying.”

We thank Marc for his diligent pursuit of visual excellence within our pages, and for setting the mark high in our continuing journey. Farewell, friend.

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