I created these illustrations to accompany the article “A Designer’s Code of Ethics” by Mike Monteiro. I started my process by reading through that article a few times and making note of the descriptions that provoked a strong visual. The descriptions that stood out to me included the ditch-digging metaphor, the tire-kicking metaphor, and several of the headline rules themselves, like the one about self-reflection (I thought about drawing a designer looking in a mirror) and edge cases (a Venn diagram, perhaps?). I wrote out descriptions for 5-7 of those descriptions, then sketched out three of them; those were my contenders for my final two illustrations (below). One shows a designer acting as a therapist (“counsel”) for their client; another shows a designer surrounded by eyes of all the people who will see their work, and another illustrates the designer’s code as something reminiscent of the Code of Hammurabi.
After getting feedback from our class on the strongest ideas and how I could enhance them, I started on my final two illustrations. I went with the stone tablet Code illustration and the designer as counsel. I used gouache and pens for both illustrations, then touched them up in Photoshop.
Creating a sort of comic for the second illustration was a good new experiment for me. I like the idea of making funny art and using humor to connect with an audience; I also liked connecting pop culture and history with the article to come up with the illustration concepts. I’m satisfied with how these illustrations came out, although I’m not sure I want to continue down this path of illustration.
