How Lou Does It - The Trouble with the Future
Tue, October 4, 2011 at 1:51 PM 
Detail from opening two-page spread shown below.
Briefings is a drop-dead gorgeous magazine that most of us will never get to see. Designed by Joannah Ralston, it's relatively modest readership consists exclusively of the top corporate CEOs of the world, and the magazine strives to offer them insight into issues that CEOs get to face every day. As an example, with the constant barrage of uncertainty that seems to threaten us all these days, David Berreby's "The Trouble with the Future" attempts to demystify that endless parade of "experts" who keep trying to tell us what's going to happen tomorrow. Behind it all, the real answer seems to be: "Who knows?!! We're just guessing!!"
Makes me wonder even more about all you people who hang on every word spoken day in and day out by idiotic "experts" on the news explaining "what's in store for us." Sometimes the experts even debate it -- you know, that split-screen thing they use where one's in Washington and another's in some other god-forsaken place (or so they try to get us to believe!). As if they knew what they were talking about. As Father Kerouac put it so poetically half a century ago: "... nobody knows what's going to happen to anybody..."
Being the unsophisticated politically and economically unaware person that I am, the assignment immediately reminded me of every Lugosi and Bowery Boys seance movie I've ever seen. Joannah understands this about me, and she and I have always worked well together. So, when she gave me 6-8 pages to dig into when I was already knee-deep in too many deadlines, I had to say YES! Plenty of room to spread out, and I wanted it to be slightly sequential, enough to flow across the 3-4 spreads. The "answers" in the circle are a la my Magic Eight Ball.
Was there ever a more beautiful game board than this? My inspiration for the face was from an Eddie Cantor game called "Tell It to the Judge" from 1939. To me, his googly face smacked of Coney Island, and was a great beginning for what I had in mind.
A detail of my pencil drawing. The hands are my own, from a few snapshots taken by my wife and handler, Clare.
The next spread here holds an initial cap "T" in its rightful place to indicate where the text will begin). I gotta say, continuing the "answers" on magician's cards was a great way to carry the idea's flow across not just this spread, but the entire article.
The pencil drawing, indicating how the text shape will zoom across, following cards along with the blue astral swirl (which mimics the background of the opener).
The righthand side of the following spread. The cards have continued across the left page (not shown here), and have found a lovely home as fortune telling cards at the "expert" predictor's table. The stars and planets have finally created their own universe within his crystal ball!
We were very close to deadline, and Joannah felt that we had a problem with the final spread -- and she was right. It was all heavy text with a sidebar, and just didn't go with all the dazzle leading up to it. So, I grabbed the nearest life vest: the magic card idea one more time, and presto -- turned it into a sleight-of-hand sequential illustrated sidebar. Wah-LAH!
As you might guess if you follow my work, I'm a real fan of magic, ever since my Aunt Clementine brought a magician named The Great Amaze-O over to have dinner with me, my cousin and my family. I was very young and very excited, but right before dinner, he announced he doesn't do magic anymore. During dinner (after my heart had hit rock bottom), he suddenly started pulling cards and coins from everywhere -- our ears, our noses, the buttered peas, the roast chicken, even thin air! Before leaving, he gave a magic trick to each of us kids as a present. I've been addicted ever since.
A bunch of us used to go to a place in Manhattan in the '70s called The Magic Townhouse. I'm not sure if it's there anymore. There was a small little room upstairs. The evening always included a tolerable buffet, and lots of close-up magic, which I adore, along with an occasional mentalist. And thanks to ol' pal Brad Benedict, I was lucky enough once to go to the Magic Castle in LA. There was a magic show going on in every room, but I was most interested in the bar, where magicians sat at various tables and tried to top one another. I wanted to move in and live there forever. I still would like to do that.
Reader Comments (3)
Predict the future, I still can't comprehend the past.
Real magic Lou!
These behind-the-scenes glimpses are real eye-openers! It shows how much thought and hard work goes into one of your illustrations. Very impressive!
My mom used to collect old magazines, posters and books. This blog really reminds me of her.