Quick cover for the Boston Globe. I'm sometimes a bit too cautious about which jobs I take, I generally like to query the art director, see the text, and even ask if the editors are literal minded, hard to please etc. before I sign on. Sometimes the art director comes with an idea that is just not what I do, a solution I wouldn't be comfortable with.

My rep will convey a request from a client which at first may seem like something I wouldn't want to do,this appeared, at first, to be one of those jobs.The request came from the B Globe, they wanted a cover with the new Boston Opera logo-construction workers about it. My concern was mixing my line with an established logo and of course the concept has been done before. I just thought there had to be a better way to show the unveiling of this new revamped Boston Opera, first peek, something like that, so I called the a/d Chin Wang, and am glad I did.
I came away with a totally different idea of what they were looking for and she was very open to my ideas. I was also swayed when she sent samples among which was a piece by Shout, recently posted here. Okay, bar raised, and that is a good thing, thanks Shout. Also, the logo is very light and gentle, so I needed a way to have it work with my style, and I thought by just sort of taking it out of the problem, placing it on a big board in an environment as opposed to trying to have little people climbing on a logo that is so airy.

I got this job on Friday, I get this a lot, you know the week is kind of slow or at least manageable then a bunch of stuff comes in on Friday for Monday sketches. Hey kids, do you want to eat next week? next month? Okay then dad will be working this weekend.



Chin was great to work with. Love getting e-mails where the a.d says stuff like this is beautiful. "lots of gasps of delight from my colleagues."

I was given the option of working the (g) into the illustration, so I did. I left out all the detail in the hand to draw attention to the detail on the right, and this also allowed for text or subhead to be placed over.


I'm not happy with teh rendering of my people, I sometimes like doing these stiff little figures, but when pressed for time...

I think next time I will sketch them out freehand as opposed to drawing directly in illustrator.