As the graphic designer in the Communications office at Wheaton College in Norton, MA. I get to work on the Wheaton Quarterly alum magazine. The latest edition is available on ISSUU.

Not only to I get to design the magazine but I also get to do some illustration work. The cover and an eReporter’s Notebook are two pieces I did that illustrate different stories in this edition.

For the cover I began by reading the story. Not just once, but at least three times. I had to make sure that I ‘got’ the connection between post-modernist literature and physics. After a round of thumbnails it was time to get down to business.

Using the authors mentioned and the reading list at the end of the story I made a list of books to find at the campus library. I came back with over a dozen books, not to read but to photograph. I setup the books in different ways, stacked vertically, horizontally and sorted by literature and physics.

For the main image I slipped some cd covers, small books and anything else I could find to get the books to look like they are floating over each other. Using Photoshop I took the background out, cleaned up the books and took the library tags off. Imported the image in to Illustrator and worked on the atoms spinning around the books.

I used another of the photos, a stack of books, to go with the reading list at the end.

The other illustration went with a question and answer piece we call Panorama. English professor Paula Krebs was asked about the new Journalism minor. My idea was to mix the old analog notebook with a digital notebook to reflect the changes in journalism.

I scanned one of my thumbnail sketches and imported it into Illustrator. Using various tools in Illustrator I did the finished piece you see on the right.