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

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.