{What do you get when you mix "Yes, Minister" with "The Office"? File by EX}
A Bureaucrat deep within the bowels of 'the System' files anonymous reports to the Ottawa Citizen
A Bureaucrat deep within the bowels of 'the System' files anonymous reports to the Ottawa Citizen
Starting in the Fall of 2006 and continuing until Spring 2011, The Ottawa Citizen would receive an anonymous report from a Civil Servant working within the government Bureaucracy, in which s[he] described the day to day goings-on of life in the civil service.
A cross between "Yes, Minister" and "the Office", I thought the stories exaggerated, however when I viewed the postings on the internet, many writers claimed 'EX' to be someone in their office for the events described were a faithful record of their experience.
Stylistically, the tone was decidedly satirical, and one could have created concept art/characters that were 'cartoony' but this was discarded because the tipping point was fine: there had to be a strong 'reality' to the presentation at least in order to make the events described more plausible and therefore more incredible.
I opted for concept art/character designs that were less exaggerated/cartoony, but in a loose brush and ink style to make them less formal and rigid. I used my Chinese Ink sticks and stone for a nice range of greys, and brush, pen, and ink for the line work and solid blacks.
Research led me to Tolouse-Lautrec's wonderful poster art, Norman Rockwell's covers for the Saturday Evening Post, and the strong graphical satire of Simplicissimus, the foreruner for the New Yorker magazine.
The other challenge was not giving away the 'punchline' prematurely, but hinting at the events that would eventually unfold.
The feature became a success for the paper, and eventually I was asked to create an animated giff web banner for their website
It was great fun.
A cross between "Yes, Minister" and "the Office", I thought the stories exaggerated, however when I viewed the postings on the internet, many writers claimed 'EX' to be someone in their office for the events described were a faithful record of their experience.
Stylistically, the tone was decidedly satirical, and one could have created concept art/characters that were 'cartoony' but this was discarded because the tipping point was fine: there had to be a strong 'reality' to the presentation at least in order to make the events described more plausible and therefore more incredible.
I opted for concept art/character designs that were less exaggerated/cartoony, but in a loose brush and ink style to make them less formal and rigid. I used my Chinese Ink sticks and stone for a nice range of greys, and brush, pen, and ink for the line work and solid blacks.
Research led me to Tolouse-Lautrec's wonderful poster art, Norman Rockwell's covers for the Saturday Evening Post, and the strong graphical satire of Simplicissimus, the foreruner for the New Yorker magazine.
The other challenge was not giving away the 'punchline' prematurely, but hinting at the events that would eventually unfold.
The feature became a success for the paper, and eventually I was asked to create an animated giff web banner for their website
It was great fun.
