As the art director for Better Homes and Gardens at Meredith Corp., Michael Belknap infuses a few of his many interests – art, architecture, and teaching – into one job that he truly loves.

A Beaverdale native with an established talent for art, he enrolled at the University of Northern Iowa with the intention of becoming an art teacher, until graphic design captured his interest and an internship at Meredith shuttled him up the company ladder.

“I feel like being a manager of an art department is like being a teacher,” he said. “Mentoring people is something I enjoy.”

Meredith has been a perfect fit for Belknap, 39, who said that in the specialized field of magazine design, the only other employment options are in New York City and he felt a strong tie to his Midwestern roots. He’s been able to take advantage of promotions within the company and was elevated to his current position two years ago.

“I’m fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time,” he said.

Belknap was hired as a graphic designer following his internship and later became an assistant art director for Meredith’s special interest publications, and helped initiate the company’s shift to desktop publishing.

“I have sort of a technical dent in my background in that I’m very comfortable with it,” he said. “There weren’t a lot of people then who were comfortable with it.”

Belknap was later assigned to Meredith’s flagship publication, Better Homes and Gardens, as the associate art director, picking up several special projects along the way. He was involved the development and launch of Meredith Features Syndicate and also served on a committee that developed the prototype for LivingRoom magazine. He volunteered to serve as art director for that project, allowing him to showcase his artistic talents, and said that for a creative person, experimental projects are truly the most exciting.

“As a creative person, we all work within our discipline, and usually your career is defined by the project you’re working on,” Belknap said. “For me, I was a lower-level designer so I was always doing what the magazine was doing. So this was a creative outlet for me and an opportunity to be creative.”

One of his biggest projects came two years ago upon being named art director of Better Homes and Gardens. He was asked to redesign the magazine that, a task that, according to Belknap, was a challenge because of the magazine’s “visual diversity.”

“The big thing was to try to bring it more up to date and infuse more lifestyle into the magazine,” he said. “I think that really helped our image in the advertising world in New York City. I think changing the visual look of the magazine has helped us sell more ads.”

He said his position is also a good fit for him because of his long-time interest in architecture, but his work with Better Homes & Gardens and other Meredith publications has exposed him to a variety of subject matter, which keeps him “creatively happy.”

Belknap and his wife, Lynne, who is an associate art director for Meredith’s special interest publications, collaborated to teach magazine design and book design classes at Iowa State University for two years. That came to a halt with the birth of their son, Ashton, 10 months ago.

“I’m very grateful that I have the career thing figured out and now I can focus on the family thing,” Belknap said.