EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

No doubt about it. Computers have changed the way journalists gather and disseminate information.

We have the world's libraries, as well as editions of every major magazine and newspaper, at our fingertips, enabling us to research issues quickly We can run data through spread sheets, allowing us to spot trends and anomalies. And, as clunky manual typewriters give way to the keyboard and the mouse, we can (theoretically) write like the wind. Revisions can be accomplished with a few keystrokes.

There are programs that help us design and lay out our pages, shortening production time and giving us greater control over last-minute updates. Still others give us an ability to enhance readability with maps, graphs and charts. And there are dozens designed to help editors improve visual appeal.

At Illinois Issues we're experimenting with all these advances. For good reason.

The most obvious changes are reflected in the design of the magazine. We believe computer illustrations can help make important information accessible to busy readers. So we've begun using them occasionally on our covers and in our main features.

With that in mind, we invite you to take a closer look at this month's issue. All of the illustrations were produced on a computer by Daisy Juarez, a free-lance publication designer. Juarez has spent the past two years experimenting on her own with better ways to illustrate journalism through the use of computers. And we're glad she's been willing to share that expertise with us.

Juarez used Adobe Illustrator 5.5 to draw this month's cover (below right) and those she did in January (left) and November 1995. That program allows her to turn her screen into a sketch pad. She uses her mouse to direct a pen tool. Juarez says she begins by drawing geometric or amorphous shapes. The ultimate effect is created in multiple layers.

For this month's cover, she knew she wanted to draw a globe with latitudinal and longitudinal lines to represent the "brave new world" of telecommunications competition. That globe then became the foundation for the rest of the high-tech "painting," which includes a telephone and a computer chip. Each element was drawn individually: Each twist of phone cord and each speck of computer chip is a separate piece. She says this drawing took about six hours to complete. "I'll have a vague idea of how I want it to look," she says. "Maybe I'll do a simple sketch on paper. But I tend to compose as I go."

The effort is worth it. In fact, her cover design on the January 1995 issue helped make it such a hot seller that we ran out of back copies. And, after all, that's our point — attracting the widest possible audience to the magazine's public affairs reporting. The impact of good design is subtle maybe, but significant. It can help clarify information. And, at a time when journalists must increasingly compete for the public's attention, it can help make serious subjects more appealing.

4 ¦ May 1996 Illinois Issues