"In what seems like a previous life I was asked by a notable advertising agency to come up with some engravings for a range of natural remedies. They were going to appear in national newspapers, and the creative team at the agency wanted images that would tap into a darker, more arcane world than is typically evoked by mainstream natural remedies.

They definitely didn’t want any ‘disneyfication’, and I duly created initial roughs that had a certain unsettling foreboding quality - the agency loved them and the client was willing to go along with them - I admit I was slightly surprised.

I then created the set of engravings and delivered proofs, assuming all would be well (since my roughs are always very detailed and very similar to the final engravings).

When the client saw the finished collection they got cold feet about them - ‘maybe they are just too... dark?'..."