A quick look over the regular assignments I do – Science Times, the Road column in the NYTimes Biz Day, The Washington Post Jobs section cover – will show a variation in style from time to time. But that’s the trick isn’t it, who wants to do (or see) the same thing every week? I try to keep things interesting, for me and for the art director and hopefully for the readers. I think the sensibility holds it all together.
For the Jobs cover 3 weeks ago, the story was about how much control over your job search should one prospective employer have. The Q came from a job-hunter who was spending time waiting to hear back from companies with whom he had a good interview. Here are the sketches I sent:
The art director decided on the marionette image. And so I finished it as I do most things, line art with color:
But I wasn’t totally happy with it. So I took the drawing, and tried something different – distressed, flat-colored shapes instead of lines, and I liked that much more, but I sent both so as not to surprise them. Happily, they liked the second version better and here is how it ran:
Last week’s Jobs column was about integrating a new hire into a small company. I tried a few things in the sketches but I knew right away that I wanted to do this one – it was fun and graphic and had the same weathered feel as the marionette image. I got lucky again, and they agreed.
