Chris Gash

Last month marked my 10 year anniversary illustrating Joe Sharkey’s On the Road column in the New York Times. I really can’t believe it lasted this long. As I have mentioned here before, Joe and I do this job over the weekend without an art director, and our wonderful editor only sees the final spot art on Monday morning when it’s due. It’s been a great run and in all these years we’ve never had so much as a hiccup in our process. As I post this recap of some of my favorite spots, I want to say thank you again to Joe Sharkey for such a great weekly assignment, and to Steve Heller, who recommended me for it way back when…

When we started this column, it was a black and white page. Color only came when there needed to be a version for the web, and since then the printed page has gone from black and white to color and back again. This first oldie from the pre-color days was about how people are perceived differently at airport checkpoints; then products targeting road-weary and jet-lagged travelers; finally, the first of many spots to come about the costs associated with air travel:

One of the biggest challenges of illustrating this column for so long is that we inevitably encounter the same topics. Here are some examples of subjects we’ve tackled twice or more, starting with wi-fi on airplanes:

Rebounding business for hotels:

Collecting receipts for expense reports:

The new yellow light traffic cams:

Taxes associated with travel:

And all the many ways the airlines try to cram more people and bags onto planes:

Probably one of the biggest recurring themes is the TSA. Here are six from the many weeks where airport security made the news – Body scanners; concerns about radiation from body scanners; change of leadership at the TSA; new ways to move people more quickly through security; TSA freeze drills at checkpoints; Clear program expands to expedite security checks:

Here are some spots from news of the day that came and went – Swine flu concerns on airplanes; airlines ban use of seat-back pockets for personal items; disgruntled airline attendants:

Joe has had his time wasted by the providers of all manner of transportation. Here are a few spots about that – Taking a little engine that could up the east coast; the summer of runway delays; planes grounded by snowstorms:

As we carried on and I got more comfortable with a weekly post, I would try out some different things to keep it interesting – I love those airplane emergency diagrams and I try to get all MAD Magazine with them whenever possible:

And for these two back to back columns about airline and then airport fees, I tried a little Photoshop magic:

But most of the time, it’s a straight spot illo. And here are just a few more that I liked – Travelers who constantly fly around the country for business meetings; airline alliances; traveling on a tight budget; the invention of the suitcase with wheels:

Some weeks it’s almost shameful that I get to do things like this. The column was about people who are still happy to travel, in spite of all the inconveniences mentioned above, and this seemed to say that exactly:

So one last time, thanks to Joe, Phyllis, Brent, and everyone at the Times. Here’s to many more.

I keep saying I’m going to post new work more regularly, and I keep failing pretty miserably. But, enough is enough, it all ends right now. Mark my words: Never again will I say I’m going to post more regularly! There, that’s that.

This full-page for Adweek was one of the more conceptually challenging assignments I’ve tackled in a while. I went through countless sketches trying to find the ideal way to show ’cause marketing in social gaming’ (between you and me, I’m not sure I ever got there, but I think it turned out to be a nice package anyway):

This opener for Sierra Magazine (the Sierra Club) about the public backlash to the new digital “smart” utility meters:

Here is just one rejected sketch that I wanted to make some room on the shelf for:

This spot for Golf Digest was about how to “sniff out” some additional yards in your drive (your driver is also known as “the big dog”):

Here are three little spots for New Jersey Monthly’s Best of New Jersey issue (I never say no to my hometown mag):

This spot for the New York Observer’s Scooter title was about parents who worry about their “Google trail”:

Here is an opener for American Medical News about how doctors get into trouble when borrowing money:

Here it is on the page:

And here are the rejects, though I may try to use these somewhere down the line…

Here are the past two weeks of On the Road in the NYTimes Biz Day. With these two I crossed the 10 year mark illustrating this column and next week I’ll be posting a look back at a decade of these spots. The first one was about the randomness of hotel and airline pricing followed by new ways to track expenses on the road:

Finally, lots of new posts on Drawing Science, if you want to have a visit. Here are two of my favorites from the past month of Science Times – Spectators experience heightened motor activity in the brain while watching a dance performance; bowerbirds cultivate plants with ornamental fruits to decorate their mating nest:

The latter made an appearance on Live with Kelly this past Tuesday as a matter of fact:

Thanks to all the great ADs who worked with me on these – Peter, Joe and Phyllis, Jennifer, Scott, Greg, Doug, Tracy and Nick!

I have a lot to catch up on here so I’m posting some new work now and more next week…

It’s been great working regularly again for Golf Digest, I never get tired of these stories. Here are the sketches for a recent quarter-page about new rules regarding what you do to improve where your ball lands:

And here is the final on the page:

These sketches were for the Friends & Family page in AARP The Magazine. The story was about a woman who was diagnosed with osteoporosis and continues to do risky chores like cleaning her own gutters:

And the final:

I have two students doing an independent study in editorial art. I asked Alexandra at the NYTimes if she would give them a Letters assignment in real time and she was so kind to jump right in. She art directed them through one of the most stressful afternoons of their lives, but they made it. I finished the same illustration they were working on for the next day’s Letters page, and here it is:

This spot for Science was about a prehistoric rodent that developed bumps on its teeth to make chewing leaves easier. You can check out sketches and more about my weekly NYTimes Science Times spots here!

Here is a roundup of the past month of NYTimes Biz Day spots – a passenger manifesto, the follow-up column to the passenger manifesto, the new Clear program moves more passengers past checkpoints, and the general difficulty of just getting from one place to another:

And finally, after six months of total neglect, I posted some non-work work on Tip Top Gash. I’ve been participating in Francoise Mouly’s unofficial New Yorker cover blog and I had a few sketches in the runners-up, like this one for the Easter theme:

I’ll be posting whatever I send to Blown Covers on the sketch blog from now on, and hopefully some other non-work work sooner than later.

Thanks to Riva, Dian, Alexandra, Peter, Joe and Francoise!

Here are some new illustrations from the past few weeks…

Joe Sharkey and I are coming up on 10 years doing the On the Road column together for the NYTimes Biz Day, I can’t believe it. It’s been a great and I hope it keeps going. The past few weeks stories include more negative feedback about blind bidding for hotels, travel tips from people “in the know”, the pre-check program for approved travelers and just how much companies are paying for “business” trips to the superbowl:

For The Wall Street Journal, this was for an article about how to interpret all those baffling letter classifications for mutual funds:

This half-page opener for Crain’s New York Business was about five up-and-coming companies racing to be the next big IPO:

This feature for American Medical News was for an article about doctors racing to file quality reporting before the deadline. After sending lots of ideas, we went with a less conceptual and more dramatic treatment (and I got to try out a new palette):

I just updated Drawing Science with some new and some old work, and here is last week’s Science Times illustration about how bad weather conditions cause birds to “divorce” (insert Stormy Weather joke here):

Thanks to Joe, Mark, Carolyn and Steve, Jennifer, and Peter.

I am so happy to finally have a chance to post some news and updates. We just had a baby last month and it’s been bananas around here…

AARP The Magazine asked me to illustrate a new Q&A page. The inaugural column was about a woman who feels her husband’s snoring is ruining their marriage. The reply mentions the sleep mask as a possible solution (and one that could have amorous results), so I tried both angles in the sketches:

I have done two of these pages now, and I’ll post the next one soon. Here is the final for snoring:

This is the latest installment of the Sean Foley advice column for Golf Digest, about maintaining inner peace throughout your game:

One of my projects for 2012 was to start a blog to record my weekly assignment for the NYTimes Science Times. It will show all the unused sketches and alternate versions, as well as bringing back some of my favorite spots from the past 8 years. You can check it out here:

I will still be posting some of the Science images here, like this one about the evolution of a grooming claw in a very early primate:

And I’ve been mentioning the upcoming live drawing video for NYU for a few months now. The video will not be officially out until April, but here are a few pics from the shoot last week:

Thanks to Dian, Doug, Peter, and everyone at NYU who couldn’t have been more fun to work with. And, to all the art directors who blew out my deadlines and gave me extra time since the baby was born, thank you, thank you, you’re the best!