Nick Cassleman - Illustrations for UChicago Web Services

My first web job was with Web Services at the University of Chicago. I ended up doing a bunch of other tasks for them, including the occasional art project. After I left, my friends from work they gave me a drawing tablet as a going-away present.

I had already drawn a few illustrations for their blog, and after I moved to Brooklyn, I continued drawing for them with my new tablet.

Each illustration relates to the content of the article. For each, I've included a link to the article and a little description of my thought process.

Economic forecasting is about as predictable as the weather

A forecaster stands in front of a weather map. The forecaster holds a phone as they describe Open Macro, the winner of the 2015 UChicago App Challenge which deals with economic forecasting.

2015 UChicago App Challenge. Web Services ran a fancy "app challenge" to get folks to build phone apps. The winner that year was Open Macro which was about economic forecasting. The global weather map in the illustration is based on data I got from DarkSky!

Presenting guts: Content of the human body

A teacher points to a poster depicting the human gut and the word 'content.' Beside the teacher is a table with an embalmbed brain and a model skeleton.

Content Strategy: An Overview. I don't quite remember the reasoning for this one. Content = substance = guts? Or maybe I was making a poop joke.

Researchers EXTRACTING DATA from WILLING SUBJECTS

Researchers observe two subjects sitting in chairs, one working on a computer and the other on a phone. The subjects are hooked up to elaborate machines which produce fancy graphs revealing their inner thoughts.

How we can help researchers with data. The article talks about a workshop that helped researchers get data. You bet your dollar I captured those researchers collecting all kinds of data about their consumers.

Just talking to a therapist about my award-winning website

A patient reclines in their therapist's office, nestled between a plant and a lamp. The patient explains that they'd like their webiste to win an award while the therapist takes notes.

Work with your clients to get “good” design feedback. I think I saw the word client and thought about a person lounging on a psychoanalyst's chaise longue.

Mainstream browsers paint together at team-building event

Four painters, each with the logo of a major browser on their back, surround their subject. They each paint their own interpreation of the giant email template being constructed in front of them.

What to Expect from HTML Email. Okay I thought this one was clever. We have some of HTMeLves building a web page and then four different browsers trying to paint it. If you look close, they're each a little different. I came up with MailShrimp way before Serial did "Mailkimp."

Business Rat knows how to speak PowerPoint

A rat stands at a podium at AMAZE Conf: The Conference for Mazes. It uses a laser pointer to navigate the audience through their presentation about redesigning a maze.

Refactoring Conditional Logic. Complicated conditional logic is like a maze. Rats love mazes. This one is presenting at AMAZE Conf. Get it?!

"Entitled human; this is a safe space for robots exclusively"

A human dressed in an unconvincing robot costume is turned away from a club called Overclock'd. The bouncer and the others in line are all robots of various models.

If you're a lonely human looking for cold hard love, I have the place for you. New York's hottest club is Overclock'd. This place has everything: exposed antennae, nostalgic dial-up sounds remixed, and enough WD-40 to make your wildest dreams come true.

When and why to use robots.txt files. The article was about robots.txt so I got my brother Bren to sketch a few robot concepts that I incorporated into this illustration. Imagine how terrifying it would be to be a human spy in a robot club.

The Trojan horse was an ancient clown car filled with murderous warriors

Three unassuming peasants pull a giant horse up to the entrance of a walled city. The guards look unphased by the gift, unaware of its sinister contents.

Web Application Security: As Important as it Ever Was. This article is about web security, so I made a little illustration of the Trojan Horse being delivered. Don't open suspicious attachments! They might be filled with flesh-eating bugs!

Even Santa is a slave to marketing trends

Santa sets in front of a high-tech machine used to determine if a website is naughty or nice using the Santa Engine Optimizer v2.0 guidelines.

SEO: Tactics to Avoid. Normally SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization but here it's Santa Engine Optimzer. I think SEO has contributed to a decline in the web, so maybe this should feature Krampus instead. In my search engine, websites with lolcats would get higher rankings.

It's about the journey, not the destination

A Rube Goldberg: A person pulls a rope that releases the contents of a suspended water tank into the fish bowl below it. The bowl contains a model ship which is blown down a ramp by a fan when the bowl fills with water. The ship knocks over a series of dominoes that trigger a mouse trap which flings a marble into a basket. The weighted basic slides down another ramp and causes a pin to pop a helium balloon. The deflated balloon tips a scale causing a piece of cheese to be lowered in front of a mouse running on a wheel. The wheel spins as the mouse chases the cheese and cranks open a jack in the box. Jack springs out of the box and tips over a rock that falls onto a giant button. The button executes an automated test on a computer.

An Introduction to Automated Testing with Behat. This post was about testing, so I draw an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine that to executed a software test.

My dear friend and coworker Gabe McElwain wrote this article! He designed a flag for a lunar colony that I've worn as a patch on my backpack since 2014. We used to share orange slices with each other at work.

God sees your inaccessible code :(

A developer feeds a website into a machine that measures its accessibility. The machine produces a long report that is then evaluated by a line of reviewers who discuss the results.

I'm not sure we they ever published the article I draw this picture for. I can't find it anyway. It was about accessibility. I drew a special machine that eats websites and spits out long reports about their accessibility.