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.
I was contacted by Dow Jones Media Group with a view to producing a cover image for the first edition of a new magazine, Financial News.
The brief was really pretty open although they specified an image that had a sophisticated feel, was forward-looking, financial, heavily digital, included the city and was to be light on people!
I liked the idea of something passing before your eyes or looking to the future. All the detail could then be contained within a stream of information. They liked the concept and gave the go-head for the profile version. The designer later pulled out the eye and some of the circuitry for a special embossed treatment at printing stage.
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.
A quick turnaround was needed for this job from The Financial Times. The story was about a summer school for would-be MBA graduates. A two-week residency, promising to deliver “a unique and transformative experience” at its campus amid the forest of Fontainebleau, on the southern outskirts of Paris. Along with classes on business awareness there are sports, games and other more relaxing activities.
A series of illustrations done for Experience Life magazine about how much of what we are told about keeping our hearts healthy is is in fact wrong.
Here are two sketches for the initial spread. It was felt that the first drawing had too much emphasis on exercise when really, although exercise was a factor, the copy was also concerned with nutrition, stress management and sleep.
Another illustration for the same article focused on the myth that high cholesterol is the root cause of cardiovascular disease. The image of a heart with roots was an evocative one so I used that in conjunction with anatomical drawings and red pointers to indicate other areas of examination.
Other images for the same piece inculded a number of spots on different aspects of heart health. Running clockwise these illustrate the following points: Eat more whole foods, the myth that eating fat raises cholesterol levels, nurturing positive relationships, going beyond cardio and managing stress.
Cover and full page image for John Hopkins University Arts & Sciences magazine.
I was asked to come up with two related images that would fit the sub-heading of the article: 'Equipping students with the analytical tools they need to navigate through the ethical dilemmas of today—and tomorrow.'
Just the inclusion of the word 'navigation' was enough to generate an idea for the interior illustration which in turn provided the solution for the cover. By using relevant icons to represent the various dilemmas I was able to link the two images together.
This piece was for the Spring edition of Security Management magazine and was concerned with how to manage communication between generations in the workplace, older employees prefer face-to-face conversations, while younger ones prefer text messaging, iChat etc..
This illustration was to be the cover for an oncology magazine but alas went used as another story took precedence at the last minute.
Not the easiest format to work with, the right-hand needing to remain clear for the typography. This job was unusual for me because I went straight into working on a colour sketch, something I almost never do. I was also working towards a rougher, more textured feel. Above is the version I sent for client approval.
Although the approach was liked I was asked to remove the figure and to replace it with a male and female doctor in discussion with a U.S. map in the background. This is the finished piece.
This was an illustration for the Spring edition of forward, the magazine of Iowa State University Foundation.
This cover image was initially to be based on the attempts to control the outbreak of avian flu (as in first sketch above) but later became more focussed on protecting the animal food supply from the effects of the flu. To this end the editors had an image in mind they wanted to use - an ethnically varied team of scientific specialists
I supplied the second sketch above for approval before moving onto the artwork. I wanted it to look quite hard and scientific avoiding anything too soft or cartoon-like. With such a detailed image I elected to use a limited colour palette to create a unified feel.
