Infographic illustration raw scans

In a past life, I worked at a newspaper as a graphics reporter. Among other things, I made infographics and key art for all sections of the paper. I relied heavily on digital tools (Photoshop, Illustrator) but when it came to sketching or original art I was and remain stubbornly old school.

I stumbled upon this cache of raw scans for infographics and illustrations and decided to share them, with some minimial context.

Aneurysm

Something to do with an aneurysm? I think I eventually traced this in Illustrator.

Tree with roots

Linocut print of a tree with roots. I don't even remember what story it illustrated or what the final layout looked like.

Arm

Just an arm. Maybe a robot or puppet arm. No memory of what the story was.

Two views of rage

I think this story was about anger or anxiety or fear or something. I think I ended up combining them.

Baby skeleton

The final version of this ended up being a digital paint over pencil.

Bat shit

This was for an article about protecting bat habitat while spelunking in Central Oregon caves. I believe these were all digitally assembled into a final piece.

Bubble

Possibly to accompany an article about the real estate bubble in Bend.

Corn maze

For a story about how corn mazes are made.

DNA and food

For a story in the Health section about gene expression and food, I think.

Frequency blog logo

A friend wrote a music column and needed a logo. This is my attempt at one of those "metal band" logos.

House

I think this was to go with an article about home winterization. I think I might have used Sketchup to quickly get the perspective and then traced it?

Juniper roots

For a story about how juniper roots spread out.

Spine thing

No real memory of this one. I enjoyed doing papercraft illustration. I always thought they reproduced well on newsprint.

Physiatrist

The file name was just "physiatrist." I don't remember much else about it.

Final thoughts

Again, these are all raw scans. The finals were cleared of scanning artifacts and often digitally colored and reassembled into something entirely different. But I also kind of like these, a reminder of a time when I was paid to be creative on tight deadlines. I collaborated with writers and photographers and created art that was published and literally sent to people's doorsteps every day.

The newsroom was an odd mix of old and new tech. There was a darkroom that was state of the art when it was built in the early '00s, but was repurposed as a closet. The "design cave" that I worked in had a great big light table that tilted and had a paper roll holder on one side and a cutter on the other. This would have been a "paste-up" table a decade earlier, but during my day was just a very fancy drawing table.