I was asked by Common Ground magazine to produce a half page image illustrating a scene from a cautionary tale about a banking glitch or possible computer hack which had left a small business with an empty bank account. The brief was relatively prescriptive so this was not a concept piece as such. The initial sketch (top) was not accepted as it said 'theft' too strongly - more ambiguity was wanted, hence the second drawing.
I got a call from Emily at Deloitte University Press. Deloitte were looking for a cover illustration to sum up a major report in their upcoming issue.
I was given a summary of the piece and, as is so often the case, the sub-heading provided the spark for the image. 'Digital transformation in financial services: The need to rewire organizational DNA'
Straight away I knew it was all electrical cables/DNA strands, plugs, engineers etc.
The first sketch on the left was liked but feedback requested more sense of a collaboration, men and women in business attire rather than engineers, code emanating from the wires and a cityscape backdrop. With that amend approved it was onto the artwork.
Common Ground Magazine got in touch asking for a cover and interior illustration on the theme of network security - an increasingly popular topic!. They wanted the cover to focus on the idea of being vulnerable to a cyber-attack.
I had a few ideas centering around the idea of theft - perhaps hands, underground, pulling code from a building. A burglar was irresistible, so I drew one coming up into the building at night and hoovering up all the code.
Hopkins Medicine Magazine contacted me to produce a full page illustration to accompany a story about new "stroke goggles" that are being used on patients to help differentiate between dangerous strokes and benign dizziness, based on eye movements.
My initial sketch featured the goggles too heavily so pulled right back to show the whole figure with a bright red highlighting the movements of the eye. The second sketch was approved with the proviso that the figure clearly be an older man.
Full page image and spot for Scientific American Mind.
An image was required to depict how we learn when no one is teaching us - how we make mental maps, how we learn languages, how we come to understand how things work.
Initial thoughts centred around virtual reality and headsets which were referenced in the copy. It was felt that approach made it too specific to a certain approach for simulating the process but didn't get really get across the main idea. Stripping away the tech and making more of a cityscape backdrop was a much better fit and it was that concept that was carried through to finished art.
The spot illustration focused more on how we unconsciously learn from each other.
