Charles Apple

Here’s wishing the happiest of VizEds birthday wishes today to Wes Rand, an artist with The Hartford Courant. Wes turns 45 today.
One is Wes. The other is his self-portrait.
Can you guess which is which? Both are
from Wes’ Facebook page.
—

A 1986 graduate of the University of Rhode Island, Wes has been an artist for the Courant since 2000.

Wes has only one piece posted in his portfolio at NewsPageDesigner. But what a piece it is!

Just when you think you’ve seen every kind of sports stadium graphic you can see, someone comes along and does something like this: A watercolor stadium graphic.

Gorgeous. Just gorgeous.

Can we see that again, in higher-rez instant replay?

Sure just click on the thumbnail:

Wes was kind enough to send me a very, very large version a couple of years ago. I’ve been using it in many of my slideshows.

So that’s the only piece he’s posted at NPD. But Wes has a nicely-designed personal web site where you can see more of his work.

He’s really into cartooning:

And, of course, he illustrates for the Courant:

Wes has even designed a number of fonts that you can download and use for free:

I’m thinking that “HandORand” would make a great headline font.

In addition, Wes writes a blog he calls Inklings. Find it here.

Wes sits atop what the Batmobile would have
looked like, if Bruce Wayne had existed in the
1840s. From Wes’ Flickr feed.
—

Wes shares a birthday with Megan Lavey of The Arizona Daily Star, scientist Linus Pauling, race car driver Mario Andretti and actors Ali Lartner, John Turturro, Bernadette Peters, Gavin MacLeod, and Gilbert Gottfried.

A veteran of many, many animated kids’ shows and movies, Gottfried is probably most famous for giving the voice to the AFLAC duck. What a career.

Plus, today is Public Sleeping Day. Seriously.

Celebrate the day, Wes, by dozing off at your desk!

Best wishes for a happy birthday, man!

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