Conceptual Illustration at WSJ

Back when I was cutting my teeth at the WSJ, I was called on to create many conceptual illustrations… Aside from the many, daily stipple portraits I and my team turned out, I had to create images to express ideas that were generated in the news.

American Gothic

A take on the Grant Wood classic, this half-column image referred to the increasing presence of agricultural-types on Wall Street.

“Hospitality”

The above, full-column illustration focussed on the industry of inducement… pulling strings to make the sale.

“Firing”

Here is a graphic illustration from the mid-eighties. I had a good time depicting the proverbial ‘Fall from Grace’.

“Beeper”

Remember the ‘Beeper’? I never had one, but I imagine it was similar to being tethered to a mobile-phone today. The illustration above is for an article about freeing oneself from enslavement to a summoning device. The WSJ was prescient!

The above one-column illustration sought to depict regulations looking into banking practices…

Disclosure

Satellite Banking

The above, one of the early larger format illustrations I created for The Journal. The concept was international banking via satellite. While I was a staff-member, The Journal grew from a one-section broadsheet newspaper to two-sections. The extended format allowed for larger-format illustrations, like the image above… and the one below:

Robotics

…An illustration of the evolving technology of Robotics.

The Alaskan Payout

Above, a graphic illustration of a law established in Alaska, granting a subsidy to all state citizens, from the profits of the state’s oil revenue. I pay tribute here to Elliot Banfield, an illustrator I admired. I made templates with which to draw, following his example. You’ll see the repetitive vertical waves in this illustration. Elliot was a master of pattern!

Lastly, a curiosity: Several years after I bid adieu to my colleagues at The Wall Street Journal, I was hired by WSJ to do a few conceptual illustrations as a freelance artist. Here is one of them:

Burnout

This image was easy to concoct. Everyone knows how it is to be in the ‘hustle’. I enjoyed being, once again, in the employ of an historic newspaper!