The Daily is heartbroken to report the passing of our longtime art director, Teresa Platt, who died last night at her home in New York after a brief illness. Teresa was a beloved member of The Daily family since November 2010 and was known and adored for her sense of humor, unparalleled passion, creativity, and talent. She will be deeply missed.
Though it is hard to put into words how beloved she was, a few of her Daily colleagues have recalled their fondest memories of her.
“I am so grateful for the privilege and delight of having Teresa with us as our Art Director for the last decade. She was one of the loveliest people I’ve ever worked with—extremely talented and bright, she shared with us a true passion for making the Daily pages jump with joy and fun and beauty. The Fix and Chic Moments spreads were her domain. She also shared our team’s sunny disposition and the great pleasure we all took in looking at a freshly-printed mag—a new issue each day!—and at seeing our readers enjoying our pages just as much as we enjoyed making them. We were a happy bunch together, and today, we are so deeply sad for this unimaginable loss. We lost one of our own, and we will miss her immensely.” – Brandusa Niro, The Daily’s CEO and editor in chief
“The fiercest and most tenacious art director I’ve ever worked with.” -Guillaume Bruneau, former creative director of The Daily
“Teresa was a joy to work with and know over the years. I always had complete trust that she would take the written word and create a beautiful page. She was a magician. She was also so proud of her pages. She could point to something on a page she designed and could tell you exactly why she placed a word there or a specific image in another part of the page. Every page was so thoughtfully designed. As I’m thinking about her today, it’s not just her talent on my mind, but her wonderful sense of humor. She brought that sense of humor to her work. She will be so missed by all of us and remembered, always.” -Eddie Roche, chief content officer of The Daily
“Teresa’s sense of joy, and her love of her work, was infectious. She was incredibly talented at bringing stories to life through design and art direction, and she did so with such skill and enthusiasm. We treasured her as both a colleague and friend; I will always remember sitting side-by-side to put the finishing touches on her beautiful pages, laughing and joking the entire time. We were usually under tight deadlines, but she was the very picture of grace under pressure. This is a devastating loss to the many people who loved her.”- Ashley Baker, former executive editor of The Daily
“Teresa was one of the best designers to ever come through The Daily offices. Not only could she turn out pages at an epic speed but she was a master of our front of book Fix pages. I remember when she would do two or even three Fixes live during Fashion Week in one day from start to ship! She had a keen eye for what looked “very Daily” and innately understood what Brandusa would like without even asking. Plus, I loved her giggling laugh and bright flashing smile. She had a wicked sense of humor and we laughed a lot during production, even when we were on tight daily deadlines. And she always had a funny story and a photo of her dog to share. It would always begin with, ‘Oh my little sweetie…’ so I was always asking her before she left for the day. She is sorely missed and gone far too soon.” -Tangie Silva, former VP of operations/managing editor of The Daily
“Teresa was the epitome of grace under pressure–a nice-to-have in most offices, and utterly invaluable at The Daily. Poised but not at all pretentious, Teresa had superb taste and eclectic knowledge about things like interior design, flowers, cooking–intimidatingly adult topics to a then-25-year-old in a cute but crumbling Brooklyn walk-up. Her passion for beautiful things felt infectious and thus accessible, and even aspirational.
Teresa deeply shaped my understanding of print magazine layouts and graphic design, and built my confidence in working with art designers. She made a chronically verbose, too-text-focused editor like me feel less insecure about how I could collaborate with creative folks the way I’d always admired Brandusa, Eddie, and Ashley do so magically and effortlessly. This happened overtly–Teresa’s patience and clarity while explaining the nuances and deliberate intentions behind every design tweak–and subtly, by simply by watching her work on a layout, in awe of how she miraculously made sense (and beauty!) out of a harried jumble of text and photo requests, so brilliantly and quickly.
Returning to The Daily offices to freelance edit issues from time to time, I’ve adored seeing familiar faces and getting back into a comfortable rhythm of working together that only comes from reconvening over the course of a decade–Teresa being a crucial highlight, and constant, of these weeks-long mini work reunions. She was the best cubicle neighbor, cracking up over her latest wry comment or perfectly-timed facial expression and swapping our latest Midtown desk lunch recs.
Beyond The Daily (and Midtown), I worked with Teresa and her husband, Mark, on website copywriting for Cooktop, their beautiful kitchen photo + video rental studio in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. She’d excitedly talked about this passion project for some time, and as they walked me through the gorgeous studio, it was clear how Teresa’s thoughtful approach, attention to detail, and great taste I knew and appreciated from The Daily were imbued in every inch of the space.
I’m so thankful to have had the opportunity to spend time learning from such a talented class act. Teresa, you are so missed and deeply appreciated. Thank you for everything.” -Alexandra Ilyashov, former executive editor of The Daily
“Teresa was one of the kindest people I’ve ever worked with. I’ll never forget how sweet she was on my first day as an intern, making me feel so comfortable when I was brand new. She had such an eye and vision and I loved getting to sit across from her for so many years—she was never not smiling! I so appreciate everything she taught me. She will be deeply missed.” -Sydney Sadick, former associate editor of The Daily
