By Mark Kaufman
Check out the wonderful slideshow of Robert Weaver’s sketchbook at  NYTimes.com. Weaver covered spring training in Florida for the Times. Sketches were for paintings  that ran in The NYT Magazine. Commentary and captions by D.B. Dowd, Professor of Visual Communications, Washington University in St. Louis.

By Mark Kaufman

By Mark Kaufman

Want to know something about how the Old Grey Lady creates graphics? This week you can ask a question of Steve Duenes, the Graphics Director of The New York Times. This seems to me to be a rare chance to find out something you’ve been dying to know about charts, diagrams, maps, tables and the like. I think it’s an awesome opportunity, for the first time they have presented a chance to ask questions of someone in the creative department. Here are the questions I asked this morning:

1. What is the normal timeline to create a chart. I assume for a breaking news story it is relatively quick, for a longer feature story I am assuming that the timeline is somewhat longer. A few days? A week?

2. Does the graphics staff have a style guide like the editorial staff? By that I mean, do you have a code of ethics to guide you  when making charts and diagrams? Since numbers don’t lie, but charts often do, how much effort goes in to making a chart not only clear and easy to understand, but fair and objective?

3. Does the graphic staff do field work or does all of the research, design and production go on in the Times’ offices?

4. How much experimenting do you do in creating new and innovative ways of dissecting information and creating a graphic interpretation? How long do those experiments go on, and does your staff have regular editorial and critique meeting to discuss the work.

5. Lastly, how closely does the graphic staff work with a writer on a particular story? I would think there would be a working relationship between writers, and designers in the business, science, technology and opinion pages, maybe less so or not at all in the news sections.

 
By Mark Kaufman
Vivitiv is moving.  That means that Drawmark
is moving too. As of March 1, 2008 our new address will be:
4745 40th Ave. SW
Suite 101
Seattle, WA 98116
Tel     | 206.623.9294   
Fax    | 206.623.9380
www.vivitiv.com

By Mark Kaufman
New piece that accompanied this article about low-income tennants, condo conversions and funds set-aside to help tenants. 

By Mark Kaufman

By Mark Kaufman
Some totally cute Valentines my loverly wife gave me. I hope your Valentine’s Day turns out swell.

XOXOXO,

Mark

By Mark Kaufman
Interesting article today on how editorial cartoonists draw the current crop of presidential candidates. Questions were asked of several high-profile cartoonists specifically on the pitfalls and challenges of drawing Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as opposed to the standard cadre of rich, white guys that have previously ran for or occupied the office of president. I haven't drawn Obama yet, but I have drawn all of the GOP field, and Hillary Clinton. I started drawing pictures of candidates and politicians with Jimmy Carter, back when I was a teenager, and it was all teeth and hair. Nowadays my style doesn’t overly exaggerate physical features, as compared to other illustrators, I go for a more “realistic” style, I let the candidates words, actions and policies color my point of view.

By Mark Kaufman
Saw a GREAT film over the weekend that I had saved on DVR for the longest time. The film is Park Row, a 1952 film by maverick independent filmmaker Samuel Fuller. If like me you have any interest whatsoever in {1} Sam Fuller, {2} the Bowery, Plug Uglies and Dead Rabbits, journalism, yellow or otherwise, newspaper wars, printing, typesetting, {3} Otto Mergenthaler and his Linotype machine, boozing, fistfights, molotov cocktails, ink-stained wretches, {4} Horace Greeley, Ben Franklin, {5} Steve Brodie and the Brooklyn Bridge, out of work cartoonists, truth, justice and the American way … seek out this rarely seen film my friends, it has it all.

By Mark Kaufman

By Mark Kaufman
More junk from the darkest depths of our office.

By Mark Kaufman
Recently rejected sketch. XOXOXOXOXOX. 

By Mark Kaufman
It’s that time again. Valentines Day is fast approaching. Here’s a new illustration I did for the Reader Valentine page at The Stranger.com. Go there to send your man or lady an online Valentine. It’s the least you can do.

By Mark Kaufman
More found junk, ephemera, and laugh-along knick-knacks from deep in the recesses of our office