Consulting firm: Procter & Gamble's Digital Revolution

This was a full-spread illustration for an interview with the CEO of Procter & Gamble. In the interview, he explains his mission to make P&G the most technologically enabled business in the world. Every aspect of the company's operations—manufacturing, customer relations, retailers, global shipping—would be faster and more efficient than ever before.
I thought it would be great to show a lot of their products (mostly household items) in bright brand colors, growing in the shape of a flower blossoming. I liked the first sketch (below) with the bird's-eye view of houses with roads replaced with circuits. It illustrates P&G's global reach to every household in the world. Maybe I'll take it to final for fun.

Businessweek: Did That Robot Take My Job?

Fun job for Businessweek about robots taking jobs away from human beings. This job was assigned to me back in November but took several weeks to be published. This was a fun and different approach to illustrating an article. Lee, the art director and I exchanged many different layouts to see what worked best. I thought it would look great if everything on the page were separate pieces being put together. Sketches below.

Tablet Magazine: Obama and the Jewish Vote

Quick one (a one day job) for Tablet a few weeks ago. Synopsis of the article: Support for President Obama is sagging among a key Democratic voting bloc. Now his campaign has 11 months to win back Jewish voters. I liked the idea of Obama pulling out a Jewish folder, brushing up on his Judaism facts for the upcoming election. Sketches below. The foreshortening on his arm is completely off.

TIME Magazine: "The Bailout that Worked"

This was a dream job. I was asked to do some sketches for a potential cover of Time International about the resurgent U.S. auto industry. The working title they had at the time was "The bailout that worked." The article was a bit more about the CEO of Chrysler/Fiat than about the industry as a whole, but I tried as many concepts as possible before I feel asleep at the computer (several other jobs were due that Monday). I did the best I could. I like some of the sketches here regardless how cliché a life preserver is, including the Joe Louis statue (fist) with life preservers or the used life preservers stacked like used tires. The American flag sketch is made up of new cars in rows. The two covers they went with are below. Even though the sketches were rejected, it was an absolute honor just to be considered for something like this.

CIO Magazine: CIOs Disconnected From Business Execs

It's rare I work with the same client two months in a row, but the art director at CIO had such a great time with the last cover she decided to hire me for the very next cover as well. The article was about the disconnect between a CIO and other biz executives. The editors really wanted someone with a disconnected plug, so I tried a few with that. I actually like the unplugged handshake sketch. But they liked the suit sketch as well. Sketches below.

Scientific American: Do Computers Have Feelings?

Quick one for Scientific American, about computers and if they have feelings or not. It's hard not to get away from tears to show feelings... but the HAL 9000 sketch was chosen. Hopefully the tears feel real?

Tablet Magazine: Jewish, Without Religion

This was for a fascinating article in Tablet a few weeks ago. The article was about some Israelis who are Jewish by ethnicity but do not believe in Judaism. Those that are not Jewish by religion want to be recognized by the state of Israeli as "Jewish without religion." It's the first "crack in the wall" as someone put it. I thought some people walking out of a star would illustrate this best (though this one was not published). Sketches below, including an Israeli flag with several religious symbols on it and someone painting over the extra candles of a menorah.

Inside Council: Exchanging Trade Secrets

Here's a long horizontal spot illo for Inside Council. The article was about how to prosecute companies in foreign countries that give away trade secrets illegally. The different countries whispering to each other seemed to fit best. Though I liked the door lock chess board idea, to show the companies are competing but exchanging simultaneously. Below is a rejected topographic solution and the sketches for this.

Sports Illustrated: Wish You Were Here—Or Not

Got a call from Sports Illustrated a couple weeks ago about doing a rush job for them. They wanted postcards of NBA players that are (stuck) playing overseas. Some are happy, some aren't. I'm not used to doing humorous collage pieces like this, but it was a lot of fun putting these together! Some variations below. It was fun choosing cliché fonts for each country too.

CIO Magazine: Forging the Vendor Collective

Some projects you're just perfect for. This was definitely one of them. The art director wanted an exec forging an anvil in a WWII poster style. I couldn't be happier! Hundreds of references were shot for this one. You can see a bunch of them in the poses for all the sketches below (some were a little too graphic and violent). Also below is the final print version and an alternative green version I liked.

Businessweek: Penn State Football Too Big to Fail

This was a half-pager (that actually printed only a quarter page) for Businessweek about how the Penn State football machine was much too big to fail. The force a winning sports team exerts on a university’s brand and student recruiting power is priceless. I thought it would be perfect for Penn State to look incredibly tiny compared to Joe Paterno. Lots of sketches below, including a college campus map as the laces of a football.

Adweek: Zombie Ad Landscape

A very quick (2 days) piece for Adweek last week, about the television advertising landscape being very dead right now. The art director used the term "zombie landscape" to describe it. So there are a bunch of sketches with graves, skulls, etc. The art director wanted to reference the smash hit show "The Walking Dead" since it's about zombies, but the zombies being ads. The piece that went to print was a last minute change- the skull/tv static piece was the original final, but was a little too morose. too bad!

Silver Medal from the Society of Illustrators

I was deeply honored when I was informed that my rejected New Yorker cover submission, "Snowpocalypse," won a silver medal (in the unpublished category) from the Society of Illustrators this week. It's an award that I literally never imagined I'd receive. There are so many fantastic illustrators out there, so many of them that are so talented and with so much amazing work produced over the year- it's a little overwhelming to consider how luck I am. Many many thanks to the judges and to the Society of this award!

Corporate Knights: How Bond Markets can save the Economy

For an article about how the issuance of bonds can be used to raise huge amounts of money for big green energy and infrastructure projects, which will put people to work and stimulate economic growth. -Fairly complex brief, no? It was seeming impossible to get all those ideas into a single image, but hopefully this works for the big green energy aspect. Lots of sketches below, including pie charts as bonds.

Figure Drawing 12

It was absolutely packed last night. Lots of people volunteered to model. The woman in the center is the director of the Society of Illustrators, I believe.

Softmart: Claude Shannon

I was one of 14 different illustrators to do a portrait of a breakthrough IT inventor for Softmart's 2012 promo calendar. I was assigned Claude Shannon, creator of binary code, which is fundamental to the basic operation of computers. This practically sold itself, so I made the entire portrait out of 1's and 0's and kept it very Apple IIe-green.. very 80's. I tried a single green tone, but there wasn't enough depth happening in the face, so there's a darker green in there as well. It was a pleasure to be a part of such a large, illustrated project!

New York Times Op-Ed: Israel and the Apartheid Slander

Very quick piece for the Op-Ed page yesterday. The article is a denouncement of the claims that Israel pursues apartheid policies in it’s ongoing dealings with the Palestinians in Gaza. It goes into several specific distinctions as to how Israel is in no way like South African apartheid. The final sketch wasn't approved till 4:30, with the final due at 6! Lots of sketches below. I tried working with "apartheid claims" mostly. The one chosen uses hands (again). I've used hands a lot more often than I probably would like in my work, but hopefully it still feels immediate and engaging. It's such an honor to get the call to do an Op-Ed piece. The deadline rush helps make it one of the most exciting gigs in the business.
Here's a link to the article: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/opinion/index.html

Tablet Magazine: The Narrows

This was for an article about David Ben-Gurion (first Prime Minister of Israel) and how Obama could benefit from following in his political footsteps. Politics are a "very narrow bridge" of compromises and both Reagan and Clinton embraced Ben-Gurion's leadership style and political skills. Obama should do the same.
After doing a bunch of Obama and Ben-Gurion sketches, it was decided that Reagan and Clinton should be there as well, so there are a bunch of sketches for this one. I had my wife take 100+ photos of myself pretending to walk a very thin bridge, for reference. Also a few for Obama rolling up his sleeves, ready to walk the bridge too. I made an animated gif (link here) of all the photos. Some were for figures walking a rope bridge but the balancing arms photos were much more engaging visually. Enjoy!

Figure Drawing 11

Finally some actual figures (instead of just portraits). Concentrated much less on the faces this time around.

Wall Street Journal: Rebel Ascendant

Bunch of pieces for the Wall Street Journal last week. This first image is the author Haruki Murakami and how his works are "hyper global as opposed to provincial or local." This portrait was done with the freehand figure drawing style.

Next is a small spot illustration for several book reviews. The art director wanted a basic murder/mystery/crime novel image that they will be use for reviews on a rotating basis.

...and a bunch of portraits to go with it.

Here are the sketches for the Murakami piece.

...and some quick sketches for the basic murder/mystery/crime novel review image.