Mark Meziere -- In Class 5/9/11

Ben Katchor

Ben Katchor is a famous New York illustrator, most known for his cartoons. He models his cartoons after real people whom he sees out in public in areas such as the subway. Ben says he tries to match roles in his cartoons to people’s faces. Katchor always writes the scripts to his stories before he does the drawing. He does this to ensure that the picture includes everything necessary to make the story make sense. When Katchor completes his artistic works he does them in ink, showing possibly he is not afraid to make mistakes. The main thing I took away from Katchor’s method of revising was to get your data down before you begin putting the story together. I feel that if you get your data and ideas down on paper then you can better organize them.

J Mays

J Mays is an auto designer who currently works for Ford motors. Designing a new automobile is a long and complex ordeal. What J Mays and his team of designers do first is come up with a list of attributes they would like the car to have. They decide the materials to be used in the car. The team then develops a couple sketches. The first shows the skeleton of the car with humans and car parts (such as the engine) inside so that the team can get a good idea of how much room is taken up in the automobile. They eventually create a model of the car out of clay like material and this becomes the mold for many outer body parts. I can apply this method to my writing by deciding what attributes I want my paper to have before I write it. Also getting sketches from other companies is somewhat like getting your paper revised by another person because it allows the paper to be viewed from a different perspective.

Grant Achatz

Grant Achatz is a restaurant owner and chef in Chicago famous for his elaborate dishes. When Achatz begins coming up with ideas for a new dish he has to consider many elements. He must consider the display of the dish, ingredients, preparation, seasoning, etc. Once all of the elements are decided on he begins his food experiments, completing many trials to make sure the dish is perfect. This can be related to organizing a paper because you have to consider such elements as your audience, subject, and any parameters your professor might have included. Then once you have decided on all of this information you can write your paper and continue editing it until you are satisfied.