St. Petersburg Times
It didn't take a lot of brainstorming to come up with the idea for this graphic. First of all, it was a question of timing. We knew all along that there would be the probability of encountering chemical and biological warfare. From listening to the news reports, we knew that in all likelihood, troops would encounter this sort of warfare once they entered Baghdad. That set our time frame.

The second step was to find out what has been done graphically on chemical and biological warfare. I looked to the graphics agencies and searched on the internet to find out what I could on this topic. To my surprise, I didn't find what I was looking for. I wanted more than just what the suits are made of and how a gas mask works. What I was looking for was how the troops detect, protect and decontaminate against these deadly agents.

For me, good research and information is the backbone of any successful graphic and I always prefer first-hand information ‹ talking one on one with my sources either in person or by telephone. So I set up an interview with military personnel at MacDill Air Force Base here in the Tampa Bay area. I spent one whole afternoon talking with the people who train the service men and women how to properly use the protective suits in combat. I also found the name of a company on the internet that manufactures the suits who were able to give me some technical information about the suits themselves.

Once I had the information I needed, I wrote the text that same evening. The next day, I illustrated the graphic using a combination of photographs I took of myself in a protective suit. The buildings are photographs of various textures I took out on the streets near our newspaper. Using photoshop, I added dynamic lighting effects to give the graphic more visual impact.  I completed this graphic (research, writing and design) in two days.

Research and interviews: 9 hours
Writing: 4 hours
Design: 6 hours
Editing: 4 hours

— Submitted by Jeff Goertzen