If you play your cards right...

This illustration was for a centerpiece we did about the 2008 California primary election. Getting all the heads' proportions to be similar was a little tricky. Also, unfortunately, the edges of the cards kinda faded out in the toning process so the definition got lost a little.

Not sure what i would have had time to do to fix it though, given I made the whole thing on deadline. Maybe made sure the toning was satisfactory on the mugshots and then NOT toned the final illustration. That might have worked.

Anyway, the headline went on the blank card in front, with heavy Helvetica condensed typography in red and blue. (I'm still looking for the page... hope to post it here soon.)

Proper focus

We were planning a story related to the 2008 Presidential race, but it was more analytical in nature, collecting impressions from our Latino community about their impressions on the race. Initially it began as a piece examining who our local Latinos might favor now that Hillary — who had done a bit better winning over that segment of the traditionally Democratic population — had conceded to Obama. (The initial pitch never mentioned McCain.) So I shopped the wires for Obama art and started designing an Obama centerpiece.

A couple of problems quickly emerged:
1) Too much focus on Obama; not enough balance with McCain.
2) Too much focus on national figures when our current mindset is "Local, Local, Local!"

Time was definitely a factor in that I had none, unless I felt like working a 12+ hour day (I didn't).

My thought was that I could save the package by doing a couple of things:
1) Obscuring the photos, which were, essentially, mugshots.
2) Drawing the readers' attention to the words, more specifically the headlines.

So I did some Photoshopping to make the faces look sculpted rather than photographed — something I only ever just messed around with, never for an assignment intended for print. (I continue to be a bit sheepish with my illustrations, mainly because I haven't had too many of them published. I'm trying my best to change that, but more on that in a later posting.)

I do wish I could have found a photo that night of McCain NOT looking right at the camera, but none of the photos available to me at the time fit that bill.

Nonetheless, overall, I was pretty pleased with the results. Others must have been, too, as I was bracing for a fight from start to finish. But once I explained my reasons, my supervisor was cool with it, and there were no nasty notes from the higher-ups on Monday morning.

Victory.