Friday, December 4, 2009

Suddenly Solo

I haven't done much in the way of a fully illustrated cover, so this was a nice change for me from the more graphic covers I'd done in the past. This is Dr. Richard Schoor's first published book as well.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Love your art, but man does the illustration send the wrong vibe this time. Only in closeup do you see the slight smile on the face of the guy on the left. The other doctors seem menacing, almost like they'd hate you for opening your own practice. The muted colours do the rest. I really don't think this cover represents well what the book is about at all.

M. S. Corley said...

Thanks for the comment.
The doctors are supposed to look pretty menacing, the direction was that this guy just got let go from his current practice, and hes upset about it, but has a small smile because he knows everything is gonna work out once he opens his own practice.

Unknown said...

I suppose so, but from what I can see, the book is about being successful in your own practise, not about being let go from the current job. At a glance in a bookstore, you want to suggest the positive influence the book is going to have on your job, not the problem the prospect is faced with. You want to start their imagination on "Everythings' gonna be fine" instead of "Sucks to be you".

Now I don't know how much influence you had on the creative direction of this particular job, but if ever there was a reason to challenge the brief, this would be it, wouldn't you agree?

The art itself is superb, but it really conveys desperation more than hope.

M. S. Corley said...

Well, I didn't argue much with the direction, I gave three initial sketch options and this is the one he chose.

Both the client and I are happy with how it turned out but I do agree with it being a lot more dreary and it could have been a hopeful image.

The original title of the book was, 'Sacked: A Physician's Guide to Job Loss and Professional Disillusionment' I think this image matched that better, but the publisher changed the title last minute.