Unique as a Web site, Atlas is also unique as a magazine, allowing its contributors to tell their stories as they were meant to be told. While maintaining high editorial standards, Atlas frees its artists from the constraints imposed by art directors, photo editors, and other middlemen in the mainstream media.

Many new visitors to Atlas are surprised to find a site this good. But even more surprising, perhaps, is that Atlas is banner-free. Rather than compromise the magazine's message, not to mention its graphic integrity, Atlas devotes its commercial energies to its clients, leaving the magazine free to publish stories with true depth, and to experiment without constraint -- and, as a result, to keep winning awards.

The diverse subject matter is reflected in the diverse media in which Atlas's contributors work. Even as our photojournalists report back from Havana or Cairo, writers and illustrators reflect in their own ways on the complexities and contradictions of the global community. Atlas also draws on San Francisco's unique creative culture for rave animations, illustrated features on boho lifestyle, and the first online serial comic novel.

In its first five issues, Atlas has presented work by such well-known photojournalists as Ed Kashi, George Steinmetz, Karen Kasmauski, and Michael Yamashita, all of whom shoot for National Geographic magazine. One of its most popular stories, on Vietnam, was contributed by Catherine Karnow, whose work has also appeared in the New York Times, GEO, Time, the "Day in the Life" series, and numerous other books and magazines. These photographers' expertise, knowledge, insight, and skill have earned them countless awards and industry accolades.

Among Atlas's regular illustrators and animators are John Hersey, Michael Bartalos, Thorina Rose, and Adam McCauley, whose other clients include Nickolodeon, Perrier, Microsoft, and MCI. They have also contributed to most of the major national and international magazines, among them the New York Times Magazine, Time, Newsweek, Outside, and Wired.

Atlas's writers are equally distinguished. Ken Coupland is a frequent contributor to Graphis and Wired magazines; the work of Todd Krieger, Julie Winokur, and Gayle Hanson can be frequently read in The New York Times, Natural History Magazine, and Conde Nast Traveler.

Atlas also has close relationships with some of the best and most innovative new media artists and programmers in the business. The work of Terbo Ted and Len Pryor has to be seen to be believed; it is widely acknowledged as some of the most creative and Web-savvy art on the Net.

Nowhere else in the industry can you find so much talent, expertise, and experience in one place -- on or off the Net. Atlas's outstanding creative energy and achievements have been consistently recognized in the press and in competitions since its inception. For a partial list, visit our credits page.