I've always documented news stories in my sketchbook, mostly just news about the environment. But as I've worked in newspaper design the past few years I've become ardent about my documentation. I love the news. I love understanding political timelines, contexts, and spotting hypocrisies. It's become a creative obsession for me, so this year I started a news book wholly dedicated to my interpretation of the political, environmental, and social happenings of 2018 and 2019. I cut up newspapers I get from all over the country, TIME, magazines, and any other relevant publication that I feel is necessary to nail the context. I still trip out that newsrooms literally publish entire books every single day of the year, jam packed with all sorts of perfectly edited content.
Maybe the craziness of 2018 isn't unique in it's anxiety — maybe every year from now until humans self-destruct will be disorientingly divided. I've been watching the Handmaid's Tale lately and my psyche is unnerved and disturbed: I see the show everywhere, in every crevice of modern society. This book helps me make sense of the discomfort and answer my screaming WHY?!?s.
Title page to my news sketchbook
Trumpy tweety
Gatefold cover to a climate change section
Unfolded climate change section
Detail shot of 2 additional flaps for climate change
Inside pages
My pile of newspapers and publications that I still need to read through (left) and my stack of stories clipped together, organized by topic (right). I've never appreciated paperclips as much as I do with this project.
My holy workspace as I lay out the Parkland shooting spread