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 use my simple & elegant line-work as a deadpan spotlight aimed on the painfully funny content, and added a single spot color to match each chapter’s color palette for a retro, 2 color printing look. 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.
“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!”
