Here’s a great story about an illustrator, originally from Barcelona, who moved to the U.S. to work as a journalist and the evolution of his career via his blog. Gabi Campanario first started blogging for the user-generated news portal – SoiTu.es – based in his home country of Spain (as I wrote in my book – Latino Link – and in this previous post The Story of SoiTu.es: Community + Technology + Editorial).
Gabi’s columns on SoiTu.es, which featured his scanned illustrations from his notebook, became so popular that he eventually launched his own blog and an online community for other illustrators to scan, upload and share their illustrations called Urban Sketchers. He launched his personal blog as a hobby. But when his bosses at the Seattle Times saw the quality of his work, they invited him to start drawing for the newspaper, where he was already working as a journalist. One of his illustrations eventually landed him on the front page of the paper. You can visit Gabi’s blog on the Seattle Times’ site.
What can a blog do for your career? Can it connect a hobby – like drawing illustrations – to what you currently do during by day?
Here’s the video feature from Seattle’s local news – KING 5 – in Seattle. (You’ll need to wait a 30-60 seconds to get through the embedded advertisement.)
Some people keep journals to document their daily lives. Other people snap photos. But a Seattle journalist is recording his experiences by putting pen to paper and sketching. When you look at his sketches, you might feel like you’re seeing Seattle for the first time.
