A Tale of Two Openers: Originally conceived as a three-story election package with Edel Rodriguez illustrating each story, we later changed the art for the opening essay to a photographic cover outtake. From Edel: “I had a few rough ideas for the gridlock illustration, but this one stood out. Some of the others dealt more with battles among real politicians or the symbols of the parties confronting each other. Having all of the stripes of the flag intertwined and blaming each other made it about the entire country, politicians, business interests, lobbyists, etc., caught up in the fight. The use of arrows also helped tie this illustration to the portraits of Obama and Romney.” Photograph by Sam Kaplan. Button design by Gail Anderson and Joe Newton. Buttons made with TLC by associate photo editor Armin Harris, using some pretty awesome button-making apparatus(es). A Tale of Two Openers: Originally conceived as a three-story election package with Edel Rodriguez illustrating each story, we later changed the art for the opening essay to a photographic cover outtake. From Edel: “I had a few rough ideas for the gridlock illustration, but this one stood out. Some of the others dealt more with battles among real politicians or the symbols of the parties confronting each other. Having all of the stripes of the flag intertwined and blaming each other made it about the entire country, politicians, business interests, lobbyists, etc., caught up in the fight. The use of arrows also helped tie this illustration to the portraits of Obama and Romney.” Photograph by Sam Kaplan. Button design by Gail Anderson and Joe Newton. Buttons made with TLC by associate photo editor Armin Harris, using some pretty awesome button-making apparatus(es).

    A Tale of Two Openers: Originally conceived as a three-story election package with Edel Rodriguez illustrating each story, we later changed the art for the opening essay to a photographic cover outtake. From Edel:

    “I had a few rough ideas for the gridlock illustration, but this one stood out. Some of the others dealt more with battles among real politicians or the symbols of the parties confronting each other. Having all of the stripes of the flag intertwined and blaming each other made it about the entire country, politicians, business interests, lobbyists, etc., caught up in the fight. The use of arrows also helped tie this illustration to the portraits of Obama and Romney.”

    Photograph by Sam Kaplan. Button design by Gail Anderson and Joe Newton. Buttons made with TLC by associate photo editor Armin Harris, using some pretty awesome button-making apparatus(es).