If sporting your orange and blue at Illinois football games and slapping a University bumper sticker on your car doesn’t fully illustrate your school spirit, then Playboy would urge you to come out to its casting for its 2012 college girl edition.

Representatives for the infamous magazine are looking for Illinois’ sexiest to grace the pages of their “Girls of the Big Ten” spread to be published September and are holding open casting calls Thursday at the Hampton Inn, 1200 W. University Ave., Urbana. The last time Playboy highlighted the Big Ten in a spread was in October 2008.

The Daily Illini spoke with Playboy photographer Zachary Johnston on the benefits of working with amateurs and why women might be bigger Playboy fans than men.

*The Daily Illini: Why is the college girls spread so popular?*

*Playboy:* Everybody looks forward to the college edition. It’s one of those things Hef (Playboy founder Hugh Hefner) got started a few years ago. College readers are such a huge part of our clientele that everybody anticipates it every year. You go to frats or dorm rooms and see the issue laying around; everyone gets pumped to see who is representing their school.

*DI: What does Playboy look for in a prospective model?*

*Playboy:* We look for a lot of things. Especially when it comes down to the college girl issue — it comes down to being fun, smart, sexy girls from every school and every background so that we can show the diversity of some of these institutions. Obviously we want someone who’s exciting and has a good personality and is energetic. It’s interesting when you look at our readership. After the TV show “Girls Next Door” came out, you’d be surprised at how many viewers come to the casting and stuff like that. “Girls Next Door,” I think, personalized it for a lot of girls, and it’s really cool to see them come out. A lot of times they’re bigger fans than the guys we meet.

*DI: Do you prefer working with amateurs or professionals?*

*Playboy:* Depending on what the assignments are, there are pluses and minuses. A lot of these girls coming out haven’t done modeling before. We’re all professionals at what we do, so we’re really good at making people as comfortable as possible. When you’re working with professionals, that side isn’t as hard. But sometimes, when you’re working with celebrities, you have a publicist who’s breathing down your neck, so it’s not as personal at times. But any time the subject is as excited about what we’re doing as we are, then it makes our job easier and it makes it fun for everybody. Sometimes we take these college girls out to farms with 150 beautiful horses and makeup and everything. They get so wrapped up in it, it’s almost like they’re professional already.

*DI: What’s the casting call like?*

*Playboy:* So we do a casting process where we set up at a hotel or some place like that, and girls can sign up online or just stop by and bring two forms of ID. Then, they have to fill out a biography form, and that has a lot to do with it, actually. Some girls breeze over it thinking it’s a formality. As a part of Playboy, the biography is a real big part of it. You know, the whole girl next door, what your interests are, hobbies … You never know where those hobbies can fall for other stuff we’re doing. So even if you didn’t get picked for Big Ten, maybe you’re a competitive skier and we’re doing a project about that. Then we snap some photos to go with the biographical information. At the end of casting, we talk to our editors and we kind of go through and make our selections. We try and shoot the day after. While we’re casting, my assistant is scouting locations around town. So Friday, we’ll pick between one or three or four girls and take them to the locations we choose.