It was a sad week at the Insider/Monitor offices last week as we prepared to say farewell to good friend and longtime graphic designer Charlotte Thibault, who retired Friday.
Charlotte has been a driving force in the newsroom and elsewhere ever since she started the day after Thanksgiving 33 years ago. She’s made graphs, charts, infographics, Insider covers, magazines, inserts, special sections, advertisements and everything in between.
We were somehow lucky enough to grab her for a few minutes last week to ask some questions about her time here and her plans for the future. It won’t be the same without you Charlotte.
What was the first role you held at the Monitor?
They called it the composing room. I was a paste-up artist, because we used to use waxes, paste, and everything we did was pasted onto a preprinted galley sheet, photographed, then they made plates from it. If you needed a straight line you had a tape that could make one.
What were some of your duties for the Monitor and Insider?
Charts, graphs, illustrations for the news, covers. Whatever they needed – everybody was my boss.
For the Insider, sometimes I’d contribute to a center spread, do an occasional map, but usually I did covers.
What were some of your favorite Insider covers?
I liked the face mash-up (August 2007). A watercolor painting of breakfast (February 2007). The Penacook postcard (October 2007). The first one (October 2006) – that was all cutouts. The clothing one (pictured) would have to be my favorite, featuring Hope Butterworth. She came in and posed for it.
How did you make them all?
Lot of times I would sketch it in a sketchbook, scan it in, then redraw it on the computer. Sometimes I would use my Photoshop skills to make things look like tattoos, as in the tattoo cover (August 2007).
We recently learned that you actually created the Monitor’s signature State House dome logo. What went into that?
They wanted a dome, we had a dome before. I must’ve done about 30 different ideas for how to do it. Publisher George Wilson didn’t like any of them, so he hired an outside agency for me to work with. The girl I worked with submitted one very similar to one I’d done. George got what he wanted, and everyone was happy, but I actually just used my own design.
What were some of your favorite projects outside of the Insider? I really enjoyed working with writers. I really enjoyed fleshing out their ideas with them, figuring out how things worked. Almost always, if it was some kind of chart or graphic, they had to explain it real well to me. I figured if I didn’t know, nobody else out there would know either.
Did you prefer working with a blank slate, or working with someone to put their vision on page? I think my talents lie in collaboration, because I wouldn’t always come up with the best idea. Sometimes I had to work through a bad idea before I got to a good idea. Collaboration really worked well – bouncing ideas off other people. Trying to find out what their vision was and trying to create it.
Did you ever write any stories? Yes. They made me do it. I always whined and cried.
So, what now? I’m going to be a painter. First thing I’m gonna do is paint – I have a studio at home. I just want to play with paint and artwork, just try things out. I’m gonna paint what I want.
What will you miss the most? The people. I’ve had the privilege to work with incredible people, nice people, smart people – I’m not in their league at all. It’s true, I really have very, very talented people that made me look really good. And fun people, caring people.
What won’t you miss? Deadlines.
