project: Dad Truths
client: Wellfleet Press, The Quarto Group
art direction: Scott Richardson
author: Mike Julianelle

brief: front cover image and 26 interior illustrations, including full page, half page, spot images and title page patterns. Written by the creator of Dad and Buried, this project required a host of images to illuminate a sardonically humorous look at what it means to be a dad in an “antidote to the aspirational parenting craze”.

solution: I decided to create simple but elegant line drawings, adding a single spot color in limited areas, to match each chapter’s color palette. After reviewing the original mood board and direction for the front cover, My first sketch included the bedraggled dad in a makeshift superhero costume, besieged by his attention-seeking progeny. I’m still very fond of this sketch, as it nailed the directive, but the AD admitted I adhered to the instruction a little too well. In my next version I swapped the more generic dad with a true-to-life portrait of the author, which they loved, and we went from there, including portraits of his actual family.