Chi Birmingham's profile

Illustration Roundup: March 2015

Illustration
Opportunity Anxiety
NY Times
AD: Aviva Michaelov
I got the chance to dust off the animation panel in photoshop this month. This was for a story on how the fear of the unknown can keep people from taking action when opportunities arrive. Thanks to Aviva Michaelov for the assignment!
Sespe Sunrise
Aun Apprendo
AD: Oliver Cornell, Randy Bertin
This was a fun one for the alumni magazine of my old highschool (go Coyotes!) One of the big traditions of the school was a yearly trip up to king's canyon. They would give us a list of supplies we had to put together before we headed out, and for some reason wool pants were mandatory, so I went to a thrift store and got these ancient wool army pants that were as stiff as cardboard and about as comfortable. Somehow, everyone else had realized they should just bring the normal pants they always wore. Formative experiences. Thanks to Randy Bertin for thinking of me for this! 
Cuba Numbers
Newsweek
AD: Mike Friel
This was a piece for Newsweek's "Two Number's" column, for a story on lifting of the travel embargo to Cuba. I was working on this while all the controversy about Edel Rodrigez's cover was going on, and I found myself scrutinizing this depiction of Cuba for any potential cultural insensitivities. Thanks to Mike Friel for the assignment!
Aero Cubana Promo
I thought I might want to use this as a promo, so I reimagined it as a promotion for an imaginary airline. (Then I googled Aero Cubana, and it's actually not as fictional as I thought.)
Coding Land
Crain's Chicago Business
AD: Karen Freese
I designed this game board for a story opener in Crain's Chicago Business. (The story compares the value of 10 week "Coding Bootcamps" with more traditional 4 year universities.) When I was a kid I played "The Game of Life" once, and was kind of confused by the rules, but really loved the board itself. It was at a cousins house, so I only saw it once, and after the fact it became more beautiful and complicated in my mind. Looking it up on image search now it is pretty standard. My imaginary version looked more like the Game of Thrones intro. Thanks to Karen Freese for the assignment!
Uber-fication of the Workforce
Variety Magazine
AD: Cheyne Gateley
I drew this "Iphone Office" was for a story in Variety about a new app that helps businesses recruit temps the same way that you call a car on Uber. In the future no one will have jobs, we'll just sit next to our phones waiting for someone on our block to require a service, then we'll go pretend we know how to do it for the day. (Something else could happen too.) Thanks to Cheyne Gateley for the assignment!
Walking the Tightrope
Vanderbilt Magazine
AD: Donna D Pritchett
This was for a story in Vanderbilt Magazine about different ways that students can manage the stress of classwork. Thanks to Donna Pritchett for the assignment!
Townhall Field Guide
Boston Globe
AD: Kim Maxwell Vu
This mock-field guide was comissioned for a story in the Boston Globe about the different interest groups represented at town hall meetings. I don't think I've ever had the chance to design so many characters for any one job. I'll be curious to see if any of them make cameos in future work, now that they've been released into the atmosphere. Thanks to Kim Vu for the assignment!
Thanks for reading!
 
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Illustration Roundup: March 2015
Published:

Illustration Roundup: March 2015

A roundup of recent illustration work.

Published:

Creative Fields