Monday, July 30, 2007

Detroit Free Press: The Case for Preschool

published July 29, 2007

This is the first time I ever art-directed a child. Good job, kiddo!

Monday, July 23, 2007

Detroit Free Press: Remembering the Riots

published July 22, 2007
The weekend papers were full of riot-related stories, many illustrated with archival photos. I wanted to take a different approach, as did the Editorial page editors, who wanted to refocus on the Detroit of today, and the ways the city is still failing to pull it together, and what we can do now to fix the city. The first idea I had was ambitious and stupid; I wanted to render a page turning, with the front page from that day in 1967 giving way to a page in our 2007 paper. I sketched it out in illustrator, but it was pretty clear that the idea was...unclear. And cliched. And would require a lot of tedious photoshop that I honestly wasn't up for. The next idea I had was to set the whole page up super-typically, with a nice aerial shot of city front and center, and the text dropping below not unlike it is in the current version, but with a giant, looming '1967' shadow casting across the page. Ultimately, I couldn't find an aerial photo in the archives I was happy with. Then I went to my fall-back "What would Week In Review Do?" Something simple. So I did this. I like it.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Detroit Free Press: Sundays in July

Up top is a spot illustration I did for Ron Dzwonkowski's Sunday column about the misconception that men know how to grill safely and effectively. Below is an On Point front that featured Free Press columnist Rochele Riley and introduced and roundtable discussion among five recent Detroit-area high school graduates, on race, moderated by Rochele.