Thursday, November 29, 2012

Alison Seiffer's Coming to Dinner


This wonderful piece by Alison Seiffer accompanies an article in today's New York Times about the endangered art of dinner parties. Alison uses bold colors and vector design to convey how dinner parties--the classic arena for social networking--have become less popular in recent years.

CLICK HERE to read the entire article: "Guess Who Isn't Coming to Dinner"

CLICK HERE for Alison Seiffer's portfolio

Monday, November 26, 2012

In Case of Emergency, Call Sean McCabe

Sean McCabe created these two photo illustrations for "In Case of Emergency, Call Offspring," a Wall Street Journal article about a tech-savvy son who solves his mother's most vexing computer problems. Sean used old photos of a stereotypical mom from the 50's to depict the character's before and after scenarios. Now we know: in case of emergency, call Sean McCabe!


CLICK HERE for Sean McCabe's portfolio.




Monday, November 5, 2012

Child's play? The 2012 Presidential Election


Andy Ward has just completed a brilliant three-part series for KidsPost, a section of the Washington Post devoted to young readers. The articles provide a fun, accessible, and informative overview of the mechanics behind the 2012 presidential election.
 
Andy contributed images for cover articles about (1) the presidential debates, (2) campaign ads, and (3) voting. In each illustration, Andy depicts Barack Obama and Mitt Romney as thirteen year-olds... which we think may have been a bit generous.

 
Initial sketches for 'debate' image


 
Andy's first illustration (top left) addresses the presidential debates. Andy drew Obama and Romney sitting in a classroom, cramming for their "really big test." Study materials surround the candidates, and each has written "Barack rules" or "Mitt is king" on the chalkboard in the background. In his initial sketches (above), Andy proposed several different layouts to express candidates' preparation for these debates.

The second illustration (left) likens campaign ads to children hurling petty insults on television. Of the three sketches Andy proposed (below), the "Romneybot vs. Obama Flakes" concept made the final cut. As Andy says, "Negative advertising with a generous coating of untruths and a frosted sprinkling of exaggerated facts... Delicious!"

Initial sketches for 'capaign ads' image


The final illustration addresses the voting process. Andy depicts Obama and Romney coloring in a United States map with blue and red paint. He thereby references both the experience of watching the election results unfold--each candidate claiming his won states, and newscasters declaring these states "blue" or "red"--and an interactive "color-as-you-go"section of KidsPost that encourages young readers to color in a map as they follow the election.
 
No matter which candidate wins the 2012 presidential election, Andy Ward deserves the title of Illustrator Extraordinaire!