A Tale of Two Hales

Portland Mercury:

Over the three day weekend I took some acid, burned my clothes, covered my face with the blood of a menstrual alley cat, and sent one too many emails. One of these too many emails was to illustrator Joseph Harmon. I accidentally sent Harmon an illustration request that I had previously sent to a different illustrator, Cam Floyd. The illustration request was for a news story about mayor Charlie Hales, and his "two faces"—the public and behind-the-scenes face. Read all about it here! So this week we had two illustrations rendered for the same story. But what's cool about my mistake is that now we can see how different pieces of art can effect the way we perceive what's being written. Example: Harmon's piece feels super fun and playful, and welcomes people into reading the story pretty effectively.Floyd's piece is dark; not like Harmon's work at all. It's moody and serious and (in my opinion) serves the voice of the story more appropriately. We ended up running Floyd's art in print. Was it the right one? I don't know. Both pieces work—but for different reasons. One thing is for sure, I shouldn't try to work when I have a busy weekend! [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

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