Everybody has questions
American Teacher magazine asked for a series of illustrations for a feature about the dynamics of students asking for help in the classroom. Turns out the students who were the squeakiest wheels were the ones who received more attention. This a problem for students who are reluctant to ask for help so the study was designed to help teachers identify those students.
AD Michelle Furman mentioned there is a racial and cultural component at play with some students who do not ask for help which is why they called. My characters can be non racial without looking forced and my solution of many of the illustrations were students who were drawn with a simple line against backgrounds. Not only did this solve the problem of race, it also caught the idea that students can be less visible to the teacher at times.
Much thanks to Michelle for the project.
Animated Impolite Gentleman, Episodes 1-3
The Impolite Gentleman is a web comic about a man who knows the gentleman ways but does not always behave like a gentleman. Thanks to Dagnabit! TV, 3 of the strips were animated. Much thanks to John Ryan, Director, Lucas Ryan, Director, and the voices of Jason Porter, Jeffery Rotter, and Nandita Shenoy.
The Impolite Gentleman – Date from James Yang on Vimeo.
The Impolite Gentleman – Leg Man from James Yang on Vimeo.
The Impolite Gentleman – Concierge from James Yang on Vimeo.
Losing your mind
One of the best things about being an illustrator is having the opportunity to work on stories which you have been following in the news. One such story is the disturbing trend of US companies reducing research and development. The long term impact could be future loss of competitiveness. Since I grew up in a science family I find this a shocking since corporations made big money with new discoveries. Dan Smith at WSJ had a story about about this trend and since it was on my mind, it was pretty easy to come up with ideas. The final approach was more of a fun retro cartoon approach with the personalized company chasing after it’s fleeing skills.
Hopefully this trend will reverse and we will see new an amazing discoveries.
Rethinking Cities
A pleasant surprise popped in the mail the other day. “The Urban Imperative” for which I had done the cover had finally been published after a few years. This book was produced by the World Bank and it was one of those unusual cases where the cover art has been finished but the book went through many revisions before the final version. The editors, Edward Glaeser and Abha Joshi-Ghani requested an image which caught the energy of modern cities and older villages merging into one. Since it was a global study, the imagery needed an international feel.
This cover was denser than my normal work because we wanted to catch the energy of densely populated urban centers. In the end, it turned out to be one of my favorite covers for a book. Much thanks to Mihae Kim (AD) and the editors from the World Bank for a satisfying project.
I H8 WAR
Charles Hively, the publisher of 3×3 and I have a long history together so I was more than happy to say yes when he asked me to participate in the I H8 WAR campaign.
People may have forgotten but my career as a 24 year old received a boost from an anti war poster for the 40th anniversary of Hiroshima which received a silver medal from the Art Director’s Club of New York.
My approach for this poster was to catch the idea of the cumulative human cost of war so I knew I wanted to play with a repeating pattern of skulls in a way which surprised and was strangely visually appealing. A deadly tree metaphor seemed the right approach for the never ending cost of war.
I did three variations and since I trust Charles, let him choose which poster he preferred. He chose the version with a bullet as a seed because he felt it had the impact and flow to work with other posters in the exhibit.
Much thanks to Charles for a creatively and morally stimulating project.
Original version without the bullet.
Alternate “winter” version.
New York Times Travel: Questions
Corinne Myller and I judged editorial together this year for the Society of Illustrators and finally we had a chance to work on a fun little project. The feature for the Travel Section was the most popular travel questions on Google with answers. Corinne wanted something playful and they requested I write the questions in the art. Since I’m in the middle of a move to my new place, it was very easy to connect to the stories, especially the packing.
Turns out my new address is where a lot of New York Times editors and staff live, so perhaps the move and the article were meant to be.
Why Robots can’t Dance
Len Small and I had been trying to find a story for Nautilus Magazine to work together. The first couple stories fell through but he came back with a story which turned out to be my favorite. It was an interview with Professor Goldberg about why robots can narrow the gap with humans regarding creativity but never match. The most fascinating part was a test interviewing robots about the human experience similar to interviews used to catch replicants in “BladeRunner”.
Since Professor Goldberg created a robot controlled garden which became a famous experiment, I went with a gardening metaphor where you can see the gap between life and computer duplication. This has turned out to be one of my favorite pieces.
Much thanks to Len for the great story.
Spread for the print edition of Nautilus
