Exploring some more

Just a couple more from Explore Provo.

If you're a comics nerd like me, you may be interested to note that these were originally drawn using ancient technology — Radiograph pens on Bristol board, and a lot of the shading is done with ziptone film. It's so much easier nowadays with Photoshop!

Working it

With May being Work Zone Safety Month (I know it's marked on your calendar, isn't it?), I thought it might be good to revisit some of my Explore Provo cartoons. These were done as public service announcements during a project to rebuild University Avenue in downtown Provo — a couple of decades ago!

...and we're in!

I know on Sunday I usually run a church-related gag, but I think we're all anxious to see the end of Jenny Ear and her case. Our regular programming will return tomorrow. Thanks for your indulgence!

We won't get fooled again!

I liked the line, "But Jenny Ear is no Magnum PI."

Hang on, we're at the pre-award process." We're getting near the end!

Watch your steps

The application process for consultants could go one of two ways, cleverly called the "one step process" or the "two step process."

Stay tuned!

The search begins

We took the steps of how to get into the consultant pool and turned them into the clues that Jenny Ear, PI, uses to crack the case.

Stay tuned! Our story continues on Friday!

In the beginning...

A few years ago (quite a few actually), our Consultant Services Section at the Utah Department of Transportation wanted to explain their program. But they wanted to do something out of the ordinary, something that was a little different than the run-of-the-mill PowerPoint. We came up with this concept of a private investigator — N. Jenny Ear (a play on "engineer") — who was trying to crack the case of the "break in:" how to get in to the pool of consultants at UDOT. 

Here's how it unfolded.

Takin' it to the streets

There's a story behind today's cartoons. As I'm sure you are well aware, May is National Work Zone Safety Awareness Month, an event to remind everyone to be safe when traveling through construction zones.

We at the Oregon Department of Transportation planned a big event in Portland, Oregon's media hub. We have several special guests lined up, including our new governor, Gov. Kate Brown. Our event was timed to hit the news cycle to get maximum coverage, an easy story on a quiet news day (someday I'll have to show you the infographic I made).

Then, the president happened. A couple of days ago, Pres. Obama announced that he is coming to Oregon. While it's not at the same time as our press event, the media is now focused on the arrival of the Commander in Chief.

We'll see what happens. Maybe we can get his entourage to drive through a work zone.

You may recognize the ol' Explore Provo guy that I did for the Utah Department of Transportation, when we rebuilt University Avenue in Provo. I dusted him off to have him give a few work zone safety messages. Here are a couple of examples.

So, yeah. Be safe in work zones. Slow down, pay attention.

Recycled: Explore Provo

It's time to do a little recycling! For the next couple of days, I'm going to pull out some of my old cartoons. I published some of these on the blog way back before anybody besides me was around to read them!

This is one of my favorites from the Explore Provo series that I did when I was with the Utah Department of Transportation.

Monday Sketchbook: Back to School

It's back to school time around here, and I just happened to stumble across one of my old sketches for Explore Provo. The University Avenue reconstruction project had progressed to a point right in front of Provo High School right at the same time that school was about to begin. We were able to work with the school district to work out access to the school. And wisely, we chose not to run this cartoon.

Moving on

Finishing up the University Avenue project was bittersweet. It was a lot of fun doing the public information for it -- and these cartoons. I also thought it was cool to get paid for hanging around the construction zone and watching the work get done. I enjoyed working with the folks from Provo City, the downtown business association, and Linda Walton, who was the business liaison (and fellow public relations practitioner). There were still plenty of other projects (and there are still more Explore Provo cartoons), but this one was certainly a highlight.

Ready to move on

When I was working on Explore Provo for the Utah Department of Transportation, there were a lot of ideas that I discarded. There were a few that made it all the way to a finished product, but I figured it was in my best interest not to publish. This falls into that category.

By September, the work zone on the project ran from the main entrance to campus to the University Parkway entrance, which was also the main access to the stadium. Football traffic was a big concern, and we worked with the university to come up with a traffic plan.

This was a time when BYU had a prolific offense, often scoring more points than the basketball team did. It was also a time when I home taught one of the offensive linemen, Dean Lott. He was huge. A nice guy, but huge. I wouldn't want to get on his bad side! All things considered, I thought it was better to let this one cartoon languish.

Until now.

I saw an article in the news about Arby's in Provo giving away free turnovers with a ticket stub from the game. I figured if they could do it, I could do it. And besides, Dean doesn't know where I live!


Normally after the rivalry game I'd publish something more like this.

Fair warning

You've probably seen the banners or at least heard rumors about the group that says the world will end on May 21. I saw a couple holding one of their signs downtown the other day, and it reminded me of this Explore Provo cartoon.

The back story is this. We (the Utah Department of Transportation) had a project that was going to close down a major interchange on Interstate 15 in Salt Lake for several months. If some of the computer models were to be believed, traffic would be backed up to Levan if people didn't change their driving routes.

For part of the public information campaign, we mailed out fliers with this "end is near" guy to local residents and used him on some of our other materials. We thought it would be fun to do a little cross promotion down in Utah County, so we stuck the sign guy into one of the strips.

The end of the world never happened. On the day the project started, there was nary a car on I-15 around the work zone. People altered their routes or their driving times, and for the most part it was clear sailing.

Let's hope that it's also clear sailing on the 21st!

Always willing to help

This is a card we did one Christmas for the Utah Department of Transportation's Office of Community Relations. Kind of went crazy there with the MUTCD.*


*Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices, the standard for signs, signals and pavement markings in the United States. Now you know.

Faster than a speeding sloth!

I was actually quite surprised at how popular this cartoon was amongst the UDOT folks! Yeah, it's a slight dig on the was the department used to be...but I guess that was it. That's how it used to be, not now. It was impressive, though, how well the project went. Especially because the year before we had a similar project in a neighboring city that was, well, less effective!

Tour de Bonko

July is full of traditions!

Besides Independence Day, Bastille Day, Pioneer Day and birthdays, it's also the month of the Tour de France. So once again in the name of tradition, we present a page from the adventures of that dynamic duo, Biko Gecko and Bonko. Biko follows the rules of safe cycling; Bonko does not. That's Bonko you see flying over his handlebars.

B&B were created at the Utah Department of Transportation to help teach about bicycle safety. Unfortunately, our funding dried up before we could go to press. As a result, the complete coloring/activity book was never published, but it has been photocopied several times.

I chose this particular illustration because there have been a ton of crashes in the first few stages of the Tour this year. One was caused not by an open door, but by a dog running into the pack.

Remember, be safe as you bike. Watch out for open doors. And dogs.

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.

Providing motivation

This is from a Christmas card we gave out from the Community Relations Office at UDOT. It opened up to read: "Merry Christmas from Santa's little helpers!"