"The Red (White and Blue) Guide," 3/4/05

Op-ed lesson of Friday: No one will mind if you caricature the French, as long as A) you are French, like author and Le Figaro food critic François Simon, or B) you don't appear to be working too hard at it, like illustrator Greg Mably. While Mably's aesthetic is always clean, flat and minimal, he actually appears to have gotten out the (grayscale) Colorforms to create this piece, adding just a flourish of non-geometric linework on top. This is a great idea for a Dogme 95-like illustrators' challenge: create an illo with only platonic shapes! It's an ironic match, however, for an op-ed arguing that what the Michelin Guide needs is a strong dose of American meritocracy.