Kept in the Dark: The Hired Guns Who Keep School Cyberattacks Hidden

The publication

The 74 covers education in America; the name is the 74 million kids under 18. Nonprofit, read by teachers, district officials, and parents. This story co-published with WIRED.

The story

Mark Keierleber follows what happens after ransomware hits a school district: consultants and lawyers arrive whose work is keeping the breach quiet, and the families whose records leaked get letters saying all is well. The piece as published. The full text and the photography that ran with it are in the class packet.

Do not send

No skulls, no ransom notes in dripping type.

The commission

One featured illustration that runs as the hero at the top of the story, plus two spot illustrations that run through the piece, in the newsletter, and as the feed card. The three are a family: the hero leads, the spots belong to it. How you respond to the story is yours.

Specs

A hero and two spots, each carrying its own idea from the story, reading as one family: one palette, one drawing logic, one voice.The hero is built at 16 by 9 inches, runs full width, and has to survive the share-card crop and a thumbnail.Each spot is built at 3 by 3 inches and has to read at one inch.Vector, drawn in Illustrator. Global swatches. One file, three artboards.

Schedule

Sep 3. Concepts and thumbnails to the desk.Sep 10. Color roughs, the hero and both spots in one file.Sep 17. Final art.

Delivery

Production-ready Illustrator file: named layers, global swatches, no stray points.Proof PDF showing the hero at run size and as the share crop, and the spots at run size and at one inch.

Contact

Questions go to the desk early, not on deadline day.

All commissions