Monday sketchbook: Memorial Day

Memorial Day always reminds me of visiting relatives and hearing stories from our family history. I thought it would be interesting to transfer that concept to the folks over at Zarahemla Times.

I think it's gonna be a long, long time

Yes, the last three days were a set up for this cartoon. It also brings us to the end of our celebration of Transportation Safety Month. Yee-hah!

It's just a click away

What? Is that a French flag in the background? It wasn't meant to be -- I was just thinking red, white and blue. And yes, that is an iMac (even though they didn't have those in WWII). The original poster that this was based on had a typewriter - and who knows what those are nowadays?

This was the first big pitch we did to use the Internet for DMV transactions. It was relatively new technology for state government way back then, so we minimized the risk by starting with downloadable forms and answers to questions (however, you'd be amazed at how many people clog up the lines at the DMV just trying to get those things!).

In the ensuing years, we wised up and got a much easier URL: www.OregonDMV.com.

Up in the sky!

This second DMV poster was inspired by one from the Royal Canadian Air Force.

Rosie the customer service agent

The WWII-inspired poster from last week reminded me of some others that I did, this time for the Oregon DMV. The idea was to get people to use alternate methods of doing business rather than going in to the office.

Learning curve

They have to go someplace to learn how to set up detours, don't they?

Keeping you in suspension

Structural engineers have this thing called the bridge formula that they use to determine how much weight a bridge can bear*. Whenever I heard our engineers talk about the bridge formula, for some reason I always thought of a recipe -- you know, something along the lines of Julia Child doing a show dedicated to single span arches. The humor in this one is aimed at a certain demographic, so don't worry. If you're a bridge engineer with an affinity for French cooking, you'll be totally ROFL. Trust me.

*Calvin's dad totally lied on this one. They don't keep driving bigger and bigger trucks over a bridge until it collapses and then weigh the truck. That'd be silly!

Monday sketchbook: Traffic report

Maybe it's just me, but some of the stuff they say on the traffic report conjures up images in my mind that I don't think the radio announcers are trying to conjure. Here are just a few that I experience on almost a daily basis:
First is the thing that's in the way. There's one traffic reporter who refers to it as a "giant blockage on the freeway."
Next is the traffic tie-up. Maybe this comes from watching too much Dudley Do Right as a child, but this is what comes to my mind...


...and, of course, the all too familiar sideshow feature, the fender bender.

Any of those cliches get your goat?

Delivering the word

Yes, the concept of transportation safety even extends to the mission field! My son, for example, ran into the back of a parked truck with his bike while he was looking up an address. I guess this isn't too far fetched, is it?

Be careful out there!

The risk management gig was about promoting office safety. Here are a couple more illustrations. One of them may or may not have actually happened to me.

Risky Business

Transportation Safety Month isn't just an excuse to unload all my old public information stuff. That's just part of it! I was asked to illustrate some concepts for risk management that promoted other types of safety for the agency, not just being safe on the road. This one could almost be a stand alone cartoon by itself.

The payoff

So what was the point of these University Avenue ads? To show that we had fun and were very successful with a cartoon character as "spokesman" for the project. We measured success in a couple of ways: the project came in ahead of schedule, under budget and expanded an additional four blocks; only one business went under during construction (and they were on their way out before we even began) -- in fact, most businesses saw an upturn in sales during construction.

With that success in hand, we were faced with a similar project on Ogden's Washington Boulevard. We showed them samples of what we'd done in Provo with the University Avenue project.

Their reaction?

"We're not like Provo! We don't want a stupid cartoon character!"

With that feedback from the field, we went back to Salt Lake and drew up a communications plan with a different approach. We presented it to the same focus group a little while later, and they loved it. Here's a sample poster from that particular project:

Recognize it at all? You might. It's based on a World War II propaganda poster. From the other side.

And the folks in Ogden loved it!

Added upon

OK, so the kid doesn't change his pose at all in any of these ads. The design matched the T-shirts and A-frame signs we had to keep things consistent. But at least with a cartoon character as your mascot, you can get away with silly headlines and breezy copy in the ads.

It ads up

The Safari Guy made his appearance in paid display ads as well. Here are a couple we had a little fun with.

We really worked closely with the city and the downtown business organization during the public information campaign. It was a lot of fun (for me, at least!) and was pretty successful.

I tell you this for a reason. You'll see.

Monday sketchbook: Camoflage!

Now if we could just find a way to get animals to learn about Transportation Safety Month, we could avoid striping animals on the highway!

All wet

Hagoth, in case you missed it, was a builder of ships mentioned at the end of Alma in the Book of Mormon.

My, what a big cartoon you have there!

OK, technically it's a display ad, the very last ad we did to thank everyone for their patience and support. Anyway, it was one of my favorites. It originally ran in October, so the punch line was a little more timely than, say, today.

And now a word from our sponsor

Another one of our PSAs from the University Avenue project.

Explore Provo, explore the world

Besides the comic strip, we also did print ads for the "Explore Provo" public information campaign. This is one of the filler PSAs we supplied to the newspapers in Utah County.

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On a side note, I did a "vanity Google" the other day, and found that one of my Conference Enhancement Tips cartoons was translated and posted in Portuguese! Cool!
Here's the original, if you're interested.

On a clear day

Looking at a four-block long section of highway in the heart of downtown wasn't enough for some folks. They wanted to get down to ground level and do like we suggested, explore Provo - where we had excavated! That was especially true when we reached the intersection with Center Street, where the road crews uncovered some previously unknown train tracks.

For obvious safety (and liability) reasons, we couldn't allow people to blithely traipse through the work zone, so we offered up this gentle reminder.

Me, I had the orange vest and a camera, so I got to see everything up close and personal... and it was cool!

I go pogo

What would Transportation Safety Month be without a visit to University Avenue in Provo and our old "Explore Provo" public information campaign?

Because the project went right through downtown, a lot of people got a front row ticket to see live road construction for the very first time. And let me tell you, it ain't like pouring a patio or putting in a sidewalk! They use all kinds of machines that most folks have never even heard of, let alone seen in action.

One of those machines is a compactor, which (as the name implies) compacts the subsurface of the road in preparation for the concrete. There's a lot of bouncing involved in operating one, which led me to this cartoon.

Monday sketchbook: Fair warning

As Transportation Safety Month continues, let's take a look at some simple warning signs of dangerous drivers. Bumper stickers, like dents in the fenders, are often a dead giveaway. This idea came to me one morning while I drove to work, and the thought of it kind of scared me just a little! I certainly hope I don't see any stickers like these!

Happy Mother's Day

I love the story of the faithfulness of the Army of Helaman, and how much faith they had in the teachings of their mothers. They certainly wouldn't forget Mother's Day -- this could have happened!

Happy Mother's Day!

Curve correction

This is kind of a little brother to yesterday's cartoon. There's a lot that goes on in road construction that most people never know about!

Environmental awareness

Before a major highway project gets built, there's a study done to determine potential impacts to the environment. There are a lot of interesting things that come up in some of those studies. I thought it would be cool if they found something like this.

Say AAAAH!

Just a side note here: in case you were wondering, yes, I did find a file full of my old cartoons - many with a distinct Far Side feel.

Waiting for it

Here's an old one that I'm almost embarrassed to run because of the artwork. I think the idea is kind of cute, though. I'm pretty sure a bad case of road rage is going to break out in just a couple of minutes, however, and as a result there will be less traffic on the road tomorrow.

Happy meal! Sort of.

I went back and forth about "free flies" or "free fries" with this one. In the end, I don't think it makes a lot of difference because they wound up with both, and either way it's still disgusting!

Monday sketchbook: Too many left turns

Two weeks in a row the Sketchbook is about the same Sunday school lesson topic! But this I promise: no gags about quail coming out of their nostrils!

Paving the way

I liked this one from over at Good Heavens.

Let's be safe out there

As you may know, May is National Transportation Safety Awareness Month, in the which we celebrate being aware of safety in the world of transportation. Being involved in the transportation industry and being a consumer of safety myself, I've decided yet again to celebrate the month by running some of my transportation-related cartoons.

Let's begin by journeying back through time (to some of my earlier work) to see where it all began.

I actually liked this one better before the stupid beer commercial with the caveman pole dance. But that's another story.