The February BIG Images Newsletter

Another month has passed, and for our second newsletter at BIG Images, I decided to up the ante a bit. I forget where it was, but recently I read an article criticizing modern pseudo-journalism, like blogs and the like, for not having enough illustrations… not counting A List Apart or Daytrotter, of course. Illustrations run rampant in other media, why not online journals, especially corporate ones? Have we found ourselves so lazy with the ease of publishing online that we’re no longer willing to go the extra step and do things right? That’s definitely what’s happened with this blog recently, I suppose. I just haven’t had the time to scour the Library of Congress website for awesome photos.

And so, in an effort to regain lost blog credibility, and flex my graphic design skills, I approached the challenge with determination and gusto. One of my first acts was to reduce my color palette to only ten colors, mostly shades of green with very little saturation. My second act was to sprinkle awesome liberally.

My article was the first I illustrated, as a sort of proof-of-concept to myself and my bosses. I had to make sure that I made a 500px wide image look BIG.

This one was tough, given that I didn’t have much to go on, other than Ken’s title “The Sales Team” and the fact that he wanted to make some kind of sports analogy. And although I know that Ken hates American Football, I couldn’t keep away from this image, of helmets lined in a row ready to be plucked by eager sweaty… salesmen.

Not quite the first idea I had, but a fitting one nevertheless. Initial sketches were too far away from this idea to really focus on, but I loved illustrating the stance and the light coming down on the fighters… Fun fun fun.

And now, how the heck do I illustrate ink? By doing an abstract soothing piece, I suppose.

We’ve had a lot of good reactions come from the latest newsletter, which you can see here. I can’t wait for next month, the color issue. It’s gonna be rad.