project: Dad Truths
client: Wellfleet Press, The Quarto Group
art direction: Scott Richardson
author: Mike Julianelle
brief: front cover, 26 interior illustrations, including full page, half page, spot, chapter opener patterns.
solution: Requiring companion images to a sardonically* humorous look at what it means to be a dad in an “antidote to the aspirational parenting craze,” I used simple line-work with one spot to match each chapter’s color palette. On the cover, my first sketch followed the mood board a little too well. My next version incorporated a true-to-life portrait of the author, which everybody loved, and I wound up drawing portraits of his real family.
*from a Greek word (1638), referring to a Sardinian plant supposed to produce convulsive laughter ending in death.
“Thank god for Terry, who not only charmingly captured the shaggy ‘I don’t know what I’m doing’ vibe of both my writing and my parenting, but whose work helped bulk up a slight book AND make my face palatable to strangers. Her warm and funny illustrations on the cover and throughout ‘Dad Truths’ helped define the book as much as the words on the pages. My family loved her work so much they printed out and framed one of her drawings to give to me on my birthday!”
