Brexit. The Day After
Illustration inspired by a stunned Great Britain waking up to the reality of leaving the EU. By coincidence I had an alternate sketch laying around for an earlier assignment about cracking foundations. I was looking for a reason to work it up and the Brexit news turned out to be a perfect fit. The good ideas always manage to find a home.
The original sketch:
Two for the New York Times
The New York Times and I have had a long relationship which constantly morphs and I’ve had the chance to work for a couple different sections lately. The top illustration for the Well Section commissioned by Catherine Gilmore-Barnes is for a column about how time conflicts cascade and the bottom illustration for the Real Estate and Upshot section commissioned by Carol Dietz is for an article about calculating when to to rent or buy. I’m a fan of both sections so when the work appears, I race to the site like a kid opening a birthday present.
3 for 3×3 annual competition
Great news from 3×3 magazine. The cover “Mentoship” for the Norweigian Medical Journal has won an award of merit from 3×3’s annual Pro Show and will be featured in the printed annual. Much thanks to AD Emma Dalby for the great assignment and beautiful cover design.
Two other pieces were selected for honorable mention and will appear in the online version of the show:
Computerworld Magazine: Big Data Art Director: April Montgomery
Plansponsor Magazine: Knowing the Unknown Art Director: SooJin Buzelli
Much thanks to 3×3, Charles HIvely, the judges and my wonderful art directors for the great news. It’s an honor to be in the show and Chairman for this year’s annual.
Carey Business: When a Brand Takes a Beating
Creative Director Claude Skelton called with a fun before/after assignment for the Carey Business School at John Hopkins. The assignment was a cover and leading image for a feature about rebuilding brands after a crisis. Claude is one of the art directors who helped boost my career so I’m always thrilled when he calls. Even from the beginning, he had interesting assignments which showcased illustration. Claude and the editor had the idea of a “Yang” branding character being abused on the cover and cleaned up for the inside lead. Thinking about the classic Tom and Jerry cartoons influenced the color and feel for the final pieces.
Here’s the inside opening spread.
Stanford Magazine: RNA Games
AD Bambi Nicklen called with a fun assignment for Stanford magazine: An image was needed for a story about scientists creating online games for those who where interested in RNA. The amount of testing needed to map RNA is so vast scientists thought crowdsourcing could be valuable and speed progress. Anyone with an interested could build and test models while playing games. The idea of online gamers climbing strands seemed like a perfect blend of play and progress. Since I’m from a science family, it was fun playing with RNA strands as a visual device.
A Taste for Tragedy
AD Paul Naughton at Houstonia Magazine called with an assignment for a story he thought would I would enjoy and he was correct. Paul needed an image for the memories of a woman when she was bedridden as a child with fibromyalgia. Strangely, meals were her strongest memories and now seeing reminders of those meals vividly brought back those experiences for her. Her passion for preparing great food grew from those years of being served simple meals by a mom who was not a great cook. Paul and the editors went with this approach because it worked both as a metaphor for food taking you away from your problems or food being the reminder of a harder time.
Requiem 2: Trump Twitter Bombs
Last week I caught the documentary “FInding Vivian Maier” which is a fascinating story about a nanny who turns out to be an amazing photographer. Since she was shy, she used a Rolleiflex which you held waist high while looking through the top viewfinder. This created an upward point of view for her subjects which created drama. Inspired, I decided to break out of my normal point of view for the Requiem series. The damage Trump has done via Twitter to his political rivals has been amazing to watch and provided the perfect chance to play with a new point of view. Besides, who doesn’t want to see a giant Twitter-like airship?