Alex Nabaum

Talking to Evil
Posted by Alex Nabaum at 10:10 am on June 20th

For this weeks TIME Samantha Powers article about the history of U.S. Presidents negotiating with dictators, communists, etc. etc.

AD was Patricia Hwang.

Interesting point from the article

"In an effort to scuttle the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty in Congress, the Conservative Caucus took out a newspaper advertisement likening Reagan's position to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's dealings with Hitler."

Apparently Reagan was a appeaser too for talking to the evil empire.

I wanted it to be somewhat general but I did use scrap of Ahmadinejad and Obama as reference.

Sometimes, like in this case, the article isn't written and only have a line or two to go on.
So I usually try to give a ton of different ideas to cover the myriad of directions the article might end up taking.

Since I'm on the subject of TIME,
here's the piece that ran the week or 2 before for the Samantha Powers column, this time it was on a commencement speech she gave. Talking about how young (an old) people can customize their media so much, that one can never get surprised and led off in a different direction.

the roughs

I was glad Patricia choose that idea, because although it wasn't my first choice, it ended up being a better piece with a much broader application.

It's funny whenever I go back and look at old sets of roughs after a some time being away from them, it's so obvious which one is the best and it was 9 times out of 10 it's the one the AD picked. That's why it's nice to have a good set of second eyes not so enmeshed in the problem.

Comments (5)

Unintended Consequences
Posted by Alex Nabaum at 5:23 pm on May 7th

Newsweek International, AD Leah Purcell

Most legislation including this Orphan Works Bill (had to tie it in since it is todays theme and I just sent my letter, thanks for the link Don), comes with unintended consequences

BIo-fuel mandates seemed like such a good idea...
here's 3 pieces I did on the that subject all in the same week.

Los Angeles Times, AD Kelli Sullivan

Businessweek, AD Don Besom

the roughs for all 3

Comments (0)

Canada Wants Out for TIME
Posted by Alex Nabaum at 11:05 am on April 18th

This was for a Samantha Power piece in TIME this week or next, I'm never for sure, about the growing opposition of Canadians to their troops presence in Afghanistan.
I love illustrating foreign policy subjects and anytime I can spoof an historical photo, that american audiences should be familiar with, at least I'd hope so! it's even more fun.

some roughs

and the photo I ripped off

Comments (7)

Shop till you drop: The battle cry of the war on terror
Posted by Alex Nabaum at 4:46 pm on November 29th

I wonder if the draft might have saved us from starting this war?

from the article this piece goes with:

It's easy to blame Iraq on a small cabal of neocons and a bumbling president. But real fault lies with the American people as well. Americans now ask more of their government but sacrifice less than ever before.

This rejection of sacrifice on a national scale contributed to the bungled war the United States finds itself in today. The war on terror is not simply a neoconservative project. It is as much a neoliberal project, shaped by views about the role of government that enjoy broad public support.

A link to the article:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/users/login.php?story_id=3992&URL=http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3992

preliminary

color study, AD says "make it grittier", so I add smoke and blood, which really adds to it.

some spots that went with the opener

some selected roughs, there were alot more...

Comments (8)

ESPN the Magazine
Posted by Alex Nabaum at 6:52 am on October 13th

This was done a few months ago, just trying to catch up on the blog, it was for article about NFL players using HGH drugs to heal from injuries, AD was Lou Vega

some roughs

added helmet and flying bandaid at AD's good suggestion

color study, judged too muted for the mag

some of Lou's design concepts for the layout, from his blog
http://thoughtpreserver.blogspot.com/
which is helps you appreciate how much work goes into great typography

final spread

Comments (8)

Wrong with the C.I.A.?
Posted by Alex Nabaum at 7:20 pm on July 25th

Here's a piece for last week's Boston Globe book review on how the CIA is low on intelligence... on purpose. They know their most dangerous enemy is cut funding so they tell their boss what he wants to hear, been doing it since Eisenhower...

thumbnails, yes this one went a rare 3 rounds!

more of the process, drawing, color studies and scrap.
for some reason I couldn't find my trenchcoat and fedora, and my neighbors didn't have any either, so a bathrobe and a print roller had to suffice

Comments (6)

Support Our Troops
Posted by Alex Nabaum at 6:47 pm on July 3rd

Little personal piece I did in adobe illustrator, my visual comment on our energy policy. I'd love to turn it into an actual magnet...

Comments (17)

Vultures
Posted by Alex Nabaum at 6:11 pm on July 3rd

Here's a project for Foreign Policy I just finished. It was a financial article which can be a challenge to make visually interesting, but when I read that these hedge funds are called vulture funds I knew it was going to be easy.