Spread 'em!

I finished this multi-page project for USC Dornsife Magazine a few weeks back, for a story on Hollywood breaking into the Chinese movie market:

The image above was the opening spread for the article. In case you can't quite make out the copy, the deck reads:
As domestic box office returns plateau, Hollywood is setting its sights on China- the second largest film market in the world. USC Dornsife professors Stanley Rosen and Brian Bernards explain what it will take for the U.S. film industry to break into China's notoriously complicated movie market.

The assignment also called for a second, full-page illustration for the following spread:

Although there were only two illustrations needed, another one of my sketches was so well received, they decided to feature it as well. Ultimately there wasn't enough room to include the third image in the magazine, however, it is featured on the website. Here's that illustration:

One of the stipulations the Chinese government requires for importing American movies, is that a certain percentage have to be 3D movies. It's one of the reasons the 3D glasses worked so well in the illustrations. Check out the article, it's very interesting. You can download and read a PDF of the whole magazine on the website here. Thank you so much to Dan Knapp, art director on this one!

In the joint for a joint

When I was in art school, during my senior year, I would always use articles from Mother Jones magazine for my editorial illustration assignments. From essays on the Crips/Bloods truce in L.A. to Zimbabwean migrants, to child exploitation in Cambodia, I always found great reporting on hard-hitting topics in this publication. Exactly the kind of assignments I was hoping to get once I graduated. I'd been looking forward to a chance to work with Mother Jones since then, and a few weeks ago it finally happened.

 I got the email from Ivy Simones, the AD, while in a pet store looking for a replacement fish, after our daughter's beta, Fang, had passed. The story was on people serving life sentences for marijuana, despite the fact that states around the U.S. are decriminalizing and legalizing it (being in CO, I could even drive over to a nearby shop and buy fresh buds, canabis-candies, wax, and even fruit drinks, all legally, and in quantities far exceeding what many people are serving decades in prison for). I was supremely excited to get the assignment.

At first, one of my sketches using joints in a baggy to begin a lengthy procession of tally marks, signifying years spent in a cell, was chosen for the final illustration. However, it was decided that my sketch with a pot leaf cobweb (or "cobweed," as Ivy termed it) would work even better.

 The final:

Thank you so much to Ivy, a very talented AD I've worked with since soon after graduating, when she was at Miami New Times, and continued to have the pleasure of working with through her subsequent posts at the Village Voice, and New York Observer. Go pick up a copy and check out all the great stories. Coming soon: a multi-page project for USC Dornsife Magazine.