How does the Wall Street Journal do those pointillistic pictures? Are they computer generated? Do they have in-house artists who can bang out an etching in no time flat? Do they use a proprietary clip art collection?
Also when did the WSJ start using photos? Recently I saw a photo of a Wolverine action figure on the cover and for the life of me I don’t recall them having used photos.
I know Dow Jones - especially the Asian operations - quite well. Haven’t seen the US version of the WSJ for a couple of years, but I’ve always been bemused by the incredibly outdated layout and the refusal to include photos. Presumably this is intended to convey a sense of solid conservative values, integrity, MSG-free apple pie, etc.
Don’t know whether they have a full-time pointillist, dabbing away with pen and ink, but they do have a store of clip art - it’s always the same pic of an apparently 35 yr old GW Bush, say. The artist who does the Asia WSJ’s pictures is very weak compared with his/her US counterpart.
My hunch is that the more up-to-date layouts of the Asian and European versions have influenced the NY office. They all see the Financial Times as a competitor, and are probably aware that the young folk out there prefer photos and even - would you believe - a splash of color in their reading matter. The lifestyle supplement at weekends very much seems to be a response to the FT’s saturday edition, which has an excellent arts/lifestyle section.
When will they stop printing that wretched pre-Christmas editorial about Jesus? It’s been going every year since 1948 (IIRC).
The story of the Wall Street Journal’s “dot-drawings”:
The Journal employs four full-time and two part-time artists to create the drawings.
The Journal has been using photographs occasionally for several years, but the number has increased dramatically since they modernized the layout this past spring or summer. They still use the dot drawings as well.
That’s how it starts. First the photographs. Next, …
They were selling quite a few of these on eBay in the middle of last year. (They were really cool.) cite
…what? Horoscopes? Nancy and Sluggo? Topless ladies on page 3?
How about pointillistic naked ladies on page 3? That would be awesome.