Illo Watch

"An Inside Job," 3/27/05

Scale shifts are a common trope of the op-ed illo. Often they're used to project a sense of overwhelming force (a huge foot coming down on the scene Terry Gilliam-style, a giant hand reaching out to help in a disaster) or dimunition in the face of historical momentum (someone standing on the shoulders of a giant). Today Michael Klein uses scale shift to convey a more balanced relationship. It's the intimate positioning of the two figures, one climbing up the tie of the other, that breaks the mold and gives the picture its disarming and playful air, making an otherwise conventional business-theme illo worth a longer look.

"Life at the Top," 2/27/05

Since starting this blog I've praised several illustrations for the way they pictorially mirror the nuances of the articles they accompany. Today's illo by Michael Klein proves that that isn't always necessary. Both Klein and author Michael Marmot begin with the statistic that the average Oscar winner lives four years longer than the average nominee who doesn't win. Marmot goes on to write comprehensively about the impacts of status, autonomy and social participation on human longevity, presumably digesting points from his book. Meanwhile, Klein constructs a simple, elegantly-drawn gag on just that one statistic. Though it barely scratches the surface of the article, it makes me wonder what's the article's about, and thus it works.