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.