November | 2009 | Chris Gash

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November 29th, 2009

The Boston Globe Post-its Cover

Recently I was asked to do a cover and a spot for The Boston Globe G Style magazine about parents who feel completely stressed out about volunteering at their kids’ schools. The Post-its mom was one of 5 ideas I sent for the cover. (This concept just popped into my head, which makes me wonder if it was luck rather than skill…I have always referred to that instant when a good idea simply presents itself as the “A-ha!” moment, which is very different than a good idea at the end of an exhaustive sketch process.) Right away I knew this was the one and included a hopeful note saying so, and happily they agreed.

We went straight to finals only changing the ‘PTA’s on the Post-its to ‘PTO’s. Here is the cover:

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November 28th, 2009

This week’s regulars…

In previous posts I have written about my two ongoing assignments for the Times, here are this week’s installments:

The On the Road column was about the upscale hotel business slowly picking up after a big slump in travel:

This week’s Observatory was a great piece about how hummingbirds curl their tongues into a straw to drink (we agreed at sketch stage that drawing the tongue as a straw simply looked like the bird was drinking through a straw):

November 23rd, 2009

More about regulars

Joe Sharkey’s On the Road column for The New York Times has been my longest standing regular assignment. I started in April of 2002 after a generous recommendation from Steve Heller, and in the seven plus years since, I only took off when I went cross-country for a month, otherwise I have planned my vacations around the column, finishing them early or returning just in time to make deadline. It’s become a sort of mission.

One of the challenges of illustrating a column for this long is that invariably you will encounter the same topics more than once. Some are more difficult than others, but it can get really thorny when a column incites so much reader reaction that Joe does a follow-up the next week, and very occasionally, another. This spot was for the initial story on the TSA enacting a very complicated set of rules for passengers’ names to match on all their documentation:

It’s difficult to illustrate ‘names’ without using words but the math formula as a metaphor for the convoluted rules allowed me to write out names without it seeming secondary.

And then, week 2, more on matching names:

November 20th, 2009

Throwing out the first pitch

This started a year ago, in front of the tv, while watching Ghost Hunters. I don’t even know why I watch that ridiculous show, but I do, and they were in NJ, so, you know. I ended up with a handful of sketches by the end that eventually made it up to my desk and then in to my projects file, periodically evolving from doodles to a series of spots and finally into a map of NJ’s most haunted locales. This past summer I finished a color comp, patted myself on the back and promptly put it away because despite being determined to finish it, I had no real plan beyond that. And then, within a week or two, New Jersey Monthly called me to do a quarter-page for a story about the governor’s race.

Ding.

I had never pitched an idea before. And I didn’t exactly have a long relationship with NJ Monthly to rely on, but a couple of weeks after that first assignment, I sent them my proposal – here was my chance, I had an ‘in’, Halloween was around the corner, it all seemed to make perfect sense, so along with an informal note I sent this: