What a great blast of 1960′s-style flower power that was on the front of today’s San Jose Mercury News.
Average daily circulation for the Mercury News is about 225,175.
The story — by the Merc‘s Paul Rogers –is about a proposed state law that would require 15 percent of all new cars sold in California to run on electricity or some other system. Anything but gas.
Bay Area News Group deputy graphics editor Chuck Todd tells us:
This one was drawn / painted in photoshop by the very talented news artist Jeff Durham. He is a photoshop master…and yes he uses a Wacom tablet.
The initial idea started with a thought from Bay Area News Group designer Chris Gotsill. He thought it would be interesting to show a car with exhaust and have the headline story and some stats contained in the exhaust. I riffed on that basic idea… I created a couple of thumbnail sketches after the morning news meeting. I felt that to be a clean car… having clean exhaust with flowers, leaves, plants etc. would be more fun and to the point. We decided on that direction.
Jeff worked with Chris on the shape layout and position. News artist Dave Johnson created the chart, which involved calling the source and digging up the raw figures…and later on totally resizing the graphic to change it’s position in the layout.
Here’s a closer look at just the centerpiece. Look for a much larger view:
Chuck continues:
Bay Area News Group team provided more feedback and Chris readjusted the layout to incorporate the graphic in a more prominent spot and we came up with the idea of making some of the flowers bigger and incorporating some data in the flowers. Jeff reshaped the graphic, made adjustments to size, shape, placement of elements and colors and this was the result.
On a tight deadline, having an artist that is so fast, talented and flexible is a huge bonus. All things considered I think Jeff, Chris and Dave did an outstanding job on a very tight deadline.
Naturally, the other two major Bay Area News Group dailies used the same art today:
Average daily circulation for the Contra Costa Times is 67,464. The Oakland Tribune circulates 52,459.
As you’d imagine, Jeff gets a lot of personal technology assignments there at the Merc:
A few more samples of his work:
In addition, Jeff works in retro-style science fiction.
Find his portfolio here, his blog here and his Twitter feed here. Find his Facebook fan page here.
Today’s front pages are from the Newseum. Of course.
Did they plan for the headline below the centerpiece package to also follow the flower theme?
Wow. Great question, Michael. I’m normally quick to pick up on stuff like that, but I completely missed it.
Michael: The design director of the Bay Area News Group tells me…
> No. I think that was just a coincidence.
There ya go! Thanks for the question!