Brace yourself

Had this piece in last sundays WSJ - about the financial aspects of raising special needs children - from saving for them and you, to preparing them for their own personal financial challenges. I wanted to pay close attention to make my depiction sensitive, but also get my concept across as clearly as possible. Big thanks to Mark Tyner, whos always a joy to work with. Really liked this rejected idea, where a bar graph doubled as stairs (as an obstacle for the child in a wheelchair) - hell of a good drawing too, eh?!

peep show

In todays NYTimes Sunday Biz,  about consumers getting a small peek at the information data mining conglomerates have on them. Thanks Minh!!

God Dam ... thirsty bitches

Heres the cover without any text:

Anyone familiar with Dre's 2001 album may recognize the title from a little skit in between songs. Fan of Dre's MCing or not, thats a flawless album. Anyway, heres this weeks cover of Houston Press - about a dam outside of the city thats ready to break at any moment - and people dont seem to be doing much to stop it from happening. Monica (the AD) came to me with this idea in mind, and it seemed like an awesome chance to get to do some hand lettering. Of course, I had some ideas I wanted to pitch after reading the story, but was more than happy to see Monica's vision come to life too. below are some of those ideas.

Cape Breton

Style section cover for the Washington Post, about how female leads (such as the ones in Action or Super Hero movies) are actually hurting strong females in other roles, like Rom-Coms for example. Leads in the types of movies are being punished for their strength, unlike their superhero contemporaries. The initial direction was much like what you see below - but Allie the AD suggested that it would be a bit nicer if the superhero woman was reaching back to offer a hand to the drowning woman - rather than ignoring her:

 So, it made sense to show the scene from behind - Allie also suggested we have the cape flow off the page like water, and perhaps we could see the front of the woman drowning, rather than her back - two good suggestions! that brought us to the final you see above. Thanks Allie!!!

 and some of the rough ideas that didnt make the cut:

Feathertales from the crypt.

Had a lot of fun working on these narrative pieces for Lee Wilson, and his literary love child Feathertale. I almost never do work that isnt built off of some conceptual punch line - so this was an extreme challenge - and fun too. I did a bunch of pieces in the beautifully designed issue - but heres 3 that worked the best. First - about a tenor who sings out of his ass and burns down a theatre killing himself and everyone else. my sketches initially were nothing like this - but I worked with Lee on building a scene, rather than an image. Also, because it was printing in black and white i had fun making this with a photocopier.  Second image was about the death of a tycoon - same process. Finally, about a poet assassin - and this way maybe the closest the pieces came to my regular work -

Big thanks to Lee for giving me a chance to spread my wings a little.

Im like a bird, i wanna fly away

 New piece for Inside Counsel about how the internet, iphones, tablets etc. are offering new freedom to lawyers. Essentially, these tool provide an exit from the office so lawyers have a bit of a chance to maybe enjoy some of the pleasures of life, and not just work all the time. I really liked the internet arrow acting as a door prop idea, as well as the smart phone doubling as an exit one - But Liz definitely picked the most appropriate solution. I had fun pushing a bit of a new direction with my work, and hope to do some more stuff like this.

the games gassed up

Worked on this cover while I was in NYC - Its about the thieving, unscrupulous gas and oil industry, and how they've essentially been caught gauging consumers. and why not, they're the only game in town. Big thanks to Tom Carlson, as this puppy is running on a number of covers, as well as interiors on various VV weeklies nationally. The one above was laid out by the insanely talented Andrew Nilsen at SF Weekly. Big thanks to Tom - whos awesome to get to work with.

 

dubbzzzzz

Heres a look at two spots i recently did for Alberta Oil mag -

The first idea (and maybe one of the best ideas i've had in a while) was about Canada getting its foot in the door with overseas oil trades. turns out, cross shapes in an oil tower look just like laces on a shoe - simple and clear way to show the oil industries foot in the door. yeah!

 The second article was about people put in place to defend finance regulation - keep executives from accumulating too much wealth etc. essentially the line of defense - pretty fun solution too!