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Climate Bill, R.I.P.

JULY 30, 2010
 

At your stands now, in the current issue of ROLLING STONE, with a very pensive Leonardo DiCaprio on the cover, a pretty disheartening article in the National Affairs column on how politics and business work in America and how big polluters continue to reign supreme contrary to all the upbeat rhetoric from the Obama Administration. 

 

The sketching/idea process went through a number of morphings as we went back and forth looking to say something new visually about a very covered topic.  But the emphasis had to be the White House ducking the hard fight with the special interest polluters.  The final idea, which coincidentally popped into all our heads almost at the same time independent of one another, was to do a spoof of the iconic Charles Atlas kicking-sand-in-the-face advertisement.  It printed beautifully and made for a strong image.

I thought maybe we could play with the notion of the Prez as Clark Kent ditching his suit as the world burns. No go.

Too small a rescue net, too far off the mark. All Warner Brothers.

Using the globe as a bowling ball and Obama's famous gutter throw as a way of addressing the administration's failure to address the real issues of climate legislation.

Obama sunburned y the pols and business interests. This actually was the seed for the quantum jump to the Charles Atlas ad.

The editors felt that the image needed a more confrontational attitude. Subtract the elephants and donkeys and the focus would become cleaner and clearer.

Bingo.

Original finish. Too much sand in the face, it was decided, was making it harder to read the globe. Towards the end I thought it might be a good idea to hint at Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" in Obama's hands. Which is what he has been trying to do and consequently getting everyone mad at him.

The adjustment allowed me to get deeper with the color- in part to cover up the prior concerns- and in turn come up with a richer image.

© 2024 Victor Juhasz