Digital Agreements (with no roughs) Wall St. Journal

Never had a job like this one before. It was on how we so easily agree to online legal forms (itunes etc. etc. ) without even realizing the harsh consequences contained in the legalese.

But that's not the real story.

This is.

Apparently the writer had dropped a story on the art director at the last minute. Since I was super busy at the time AD David Bamundo at the Wall Street Journal told me to just send him a final, no roughs, no art direction, no nothing! And I had never even worked with him before!

Whoa, that's trust.

I think if I had less experience I might have thought "Sweet!"
But it sunk in pretty quick I was going to have to do both jobs, illustrate AND art direct.

Of course I always edit and art direct myself as I go along on every job, but in the end I always throw in some surprising ideas that may or may not work and hand it off to the art director to make the final decision.

And making good decisions is work, no doubt about it!

So thanks for nothing Dave.... just kidding, I learned a bunch.

Christoph Niemann says you've got to stay in touch with you inner-art director, so you don't waste everybody's time. So actually, thanks Dave! For letting me turn "my inner art director" to "outer" on this one.

I'm just glad I don't have to do it all the time.

Organ Traffickers

This one for a weighty story on international organized crime's move into the trafficking of organs, mostly kidneys. In Bloomberg Markets magazine.

I was excited to get this one, I knew it would have potential so I went a little nuts concepting.

The main victims and criminals in the story were Ukrainian.

Here's the spread, I decided to visually relate the kidney tubes to his gold chain and wallet at the last minute.

Racial Definitions in America

 

Got to do a illustration for a dual book review by Gwen Ifill for the Washington Post.

Here's an excerpt: 

Decades later, Americans are still struggling with racial definitions. Is the president black or biracial? Are we Latino or Hispanic? Is the n-word an insult or an affectionate term? What does it mean to be authentically black? And does any of that
matter anymore? Didn't the 2008 election signal that the country that elected its first black president is now post-racial?

sketch and color study

Two new books take radically different approaches to these questions of race introspection - one academic, the other anecdotal. Both are mature and serious works that seek to get us past our laziest assumptions about race. Each managed to expand my notion of what it means to be black in America, and why it matters.

Art direction by Kristin Lenz.

Hollow Recovery

For Bloomberg Markets on America's hollow recovery. For some reason I love drawing pie, and I finally got a pie idea that could hold a full page. Thanks Tjia!

The article was long so it talked about alot of things from hollow recovery to lengthy slow growth to mixed signals of weakness and strengths, so I had to cover alot of possibilities. Luckily everyone was in the mood for pie though!

Bullish on Coal

Full page for Bloomberg Markets on the IPO winners and losers of 2011.
Apparently an Indian coal producer came out on top. So used to having to make carbon look bad, it was a fun challenge to reverse it.

Actually all I had to work with at the start from the mag was, "old energy beats new energy", hence the wide range of roughs.

Challenge was to get the bull head to read as dump truck simultaneously.
Siung suggested adding a little steam from the nostrils which helped.

So long Kim Jong for NYTimes

Was salivating at this job when Matt Dorfman called me to do something on the future of Korea with the death of Kim Jong, because I love doing conceptual portraits.

The article had a lot to do with China's response and how it wants to keep Korea divided, so I had to cover that angle, but I was hoping I could get away with something a bit more timeless on the just the future of Korea.

Luckily Matt agreed AND was willing and able to go to bat for this idea. And he gave me an extra hour to do it, so from initial call to delivery was about 5 hours...

Ecology of Conflict

 This was for an article for California Magazine on the interesting fact due to the Somali pirates, tuna, marlin and wahoo populations have soared in that part of the Indian Ocean. Since I'm very interested in military history and the environment, this was an rare intersection of my interests to say the least.

 The article included other conflicts, so I had to cover my bases, but of course I was hoping for the Pirates.

Had to do quite a few color studies to come up with something simple that would unite the skull, RPG and marlin and still seem somewhat natural to what they are.