Illustration of a residential backyard with green features including rainwater catchment, recycled decking, recycled interlocking brick & underlay, compost bin and a manual lawnmower. For GreenBuilder Magazine, AD Edwin Malstrom.

Cutaway illustration of a 50m (164′) luxury super yacht. Furnished with a 6m tender, personal water craft and cabins for 12 guests and 12 crew.

Straight-up technical illustration to accompany an AAA Living article explaining how car batteries work and why they fail. I’ve been working in a variety of styles recently, so it was nice to do something more representational. Being a technical illustrator is like being a designer, in that ‘style’ is just another tool for communication. Thanks to AD Chris Ferguson for the great project!

Popular Mechanics‘ November issue featured a story on the collapse of an 86 foot tall, 406 foot long, steel and tensioned fabric football practice facility due to violent winds and faulty engineering. This story was also released in the magazine’s sophomore iPad edition. I worked with AD John Walker to illustrate what transpired to bring the structure down on top of the 70 players, coaches, staff and media inside at the time.

This was my first time creating content specifically for the iPad, but having previously produced motion & interactive illustrations for the web, the process was smooth. The results can be seen by downloading Popular Mechanics Interactive in the iTunes store and purchasing the November 2010 issue, or right here in my motion graphics portfolio.

Technical illustration showing how a conventional automotive battery works. Electrons in the positive plates (red) race through an electrolytic solution of water and sulfuric acid into the negative plates (blue). The six cells produce a total of 12.6 volts, powering the ignition system and starting the engine. In older batteries, lead sulfate crystals hinder the flow of electrons. AAA Living, AD Chris Ferguson.