Illustration: Kyle Bean reflects on the Snowden story for The Guardian

Date
5 June 2014

The biggest news of the story of the past couple of years has probably been Edward Snowden’s crusade against the US authorities’ snooping tactics. It’s been spearheaded by The Guardian so it’s quite an honour for a creative to be asked by that very newspaper to create visuals for its own magazine’s coverage.

But Kyle Bean seems to thrive under that kind of pressure. In his two final images – a USB made into a whistle and a portrait of Snowden created from circuitry – he takes strong, simple (but not trite) concepts and executes them flawlessly.

Even in print his model-making skills shine through, as can be seen in the recent body hacking cover for The New York Times Magazine and his charming work to promote the Motion Factory exhibition.

Already high, Kyle’s creative stock seems to have risen to a whole new level recently.

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Kyle Bean: Whistleblower for The Guardian

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Kyle Bean: Whistleblower for The Guardian (detail)

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Kyle Bean: Whistleblower for The Guardian (print)

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Kyle Bean: Edward Snowden for The Guardian

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Kyle Bean: Body Hacking for the New York Times

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Kyle Bean: Motion Factory (Photo by Aaron Tilley)

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Kyle Bean: Aspects of Land for Savills (Photo by Aaron Tilley)

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About the Author

Rob Alderson

Rob joined It’s Nice That as Online Editor in July 2011 before becoming Editor-in-Chief and working across all editorial projects including itsnicethat.com, Printed Pages, Here and Nicer Tuesdays. Rob left It’s Nice That in June 2015.

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