Conventional illustration marketing wisdom dictates that you should stick to one identifiable style, as it makes you easier to remember in client’s eyes. I’ve always struggled against that philosophy, probably shooting myself in the foot in the process. I like to work in several styles, and always have. The different styles seem to feed each other, sometimes giving you ideas for solutions that wouldn’t have occurred to you otherwise. It is also a great way to keep the work fresh and interesting. Every day is a new frontier.

Anyhow, this was a mailer that I sent out at the end of ’93, with the express purpose of selling the variety of styles available. The idea that in hiring me, they are in fact hiring 5 or more illustrators with distinctive styles. I recycled a few assignments from earlier in the year, colored one black and white illustration, and created a few pieces specifically for this mailer (I’ve included the ‘colored’ illustration and the unpublished pieces here in this post). The entire thing was hand lettered right down to the calendar layouts, folded and saddle stapled and sent out in a 5×10 envelope.

In addition to the big calendar at the end of the year, I was still also sending out color postcards periodically. This was an example of a recycled image, the illustration originally was a spot cartoon for Governing Magazine.