Vantage

Using NASA photos and graphics, and adding the blackness of space to great effect, artist Mike McQuade created this compelling illustration to accompany “Vantage,” a poem published July 14, 2019, in The Times. Natasha Trethewey’s poem recounts that the moon landing and all its promise did not erase strife, prejudice or national conflict back home. This image is part of our collection of editorial illustrations available as unframed or framed fine-art prints.

This illustration was published in “The Next Giant Leap,” a special newspaper section commemorating the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing in 1969.

Natasha Trethewey, who served two terms as the 19th poet laureate of the United States, writes in “Vantage,” “She is farther from us now than then, our moon, symbol of our seeking once seemingly unattainable—that Sea of Tranquility—toward which we set our course, then reached.“

Mike McQuade is an artist and designer living and working in Richmond, Va. His work has been recognized by the American Institute of Graphic Arts, American Illustration, The New York Times, Communication Arts, Art Directors Club and Vice Media. Mike’s work can be found in many major publications including The Times, The New Yorker, Wired Magazine, Vanity Fair Magazine, The Atlantic Magazine, Rolling Stone Magazine, The Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, The Guardian and The Baffler. McQuade also creates art and design for clients such as Nike, Penguin Books, Pentagram, Red Wing Shoes, NPR, RXBAR and a number of start-up brands.

McQuade uses thoughtful crops, color, imagery, pattern and repetition to convey a strong design concept. He lets the process lead him and isn’t afraid to start over again or allow a mistake to be the final outcome of a piece.