JESUS CHRIST ON A BICYCLE . . . . . . . I"M PUBLISHED!

Well opportunity has come and gone, and I am left pretty astounded. My co-op at the National Post for the past two weeks was an adventure. Navigating public transit, braving the weather, run-ins with Go-Police, and the pressure of fitting into a team to make deadlines for a turn around usually less than 24 hours. It was intimidating. Luckily I found a rhythm, caught on fast and figured out how to sweet talk the Go-Police like it's my job. When I arrived at the Post I was thrown right into the mix. The Graphics and Illustration department has a stellar team, mostly Sheridan graduates. Graphic Editor Richard Johnson heads the team of Kagan McLeod, Andrew Barr, Mike Faille (pronounced "fy"), Steve Murray, and Jonothan Rivait. They are a great bunch of guys with stupid amounts of talent. I was expecting to start off slow, but from day one I was given work that was actually published in the paper daily! These are some of the basic graphics I worked on for the Post.

On my second day on the job Rich gave me an illustration to take on. It was my first illustration job ever. The article was about a woman who plays a match-maker for Toronto's high class society. I started out with a pencil sketch, took it into photoshop, then played around with the multiple layer and various colour overlays. It turned out alright. It's a start right?

This is an illustration for Toronto Magazine, which is found in the Post during weekends. The article was about how to remodel the area of Queen Street W. and Parkdale to be more inviting and scenic. The article primarily talks about the area outside of the Gladstone hotel. I got some overhead shots of the area from Google Earth, then traced them out in Illustrator in a rough architectural-concept style. I was given a lot of freedom to add what ever i thought the area may need. This mostly ended up being gardens, park area, bike lanes, wider sidewalks, etc. It was fun working in such a long, horizontal format.

Remember when the U.S. lost control of their own spy satellite and had to shoot it down with a missile? Well the Post ran an awesome graphic illustration of what happened during the process. Richard, Andrew and myself worked on this together. I rendered the satellite for Rich, and he put it all together. It turned out reallllllly nice.

Finally, this is the majority of work we do for the graphics department. A lot of graphs, charts and locator maps. Taking raw information that most people would just skip over and make it into something pretty. Most people take these graphics for granted. On my last day however; the National Post pulled in a fair share of awards on a major international level. The Post was third in the World with fifty one awards (behind only the New York Times and L.A. Time). There was a speech and some shout outs, mainly to the studs in graphics. Apparently Rich is a really big deal around these parts. Some sort of newspaper graphics celebrity? Their hard work and dedication was rewarded with the mecca of all combinations, pizza and beer. And I was there to partake in the glory basking. All in all, a good day to end off a very enlightening two weeks spent in Don Mills. Would I do it again? I don't know. The two hour commute there and back was bothersome, but I got some good sketches done. I'll post those soon. For now, I need to catch up on two weeks of missed school work. Ouch. Big thanks to Rich and the guys from graphics for having me. It was a great opportunity and really enjoyed my time at the National Post. Thanks.