Tribes

In August 2006, my 3D artist Lauren de Napoli and I created an illustration for the New York Times Sunday Styles section, entitled “Into Africa.” In 2008, I got a call from Joseph Perez, art director of Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin USA. He was working on a new book, “Tribes” by Seth Godin, for which he needed a cover illustration. He remembered my New York Times illustration and suggested that I try to do something similar for this book. When the book got published it became an instant bestseller. That resulted in quite a few similar illustrations and book covers by other artists. At the end of 2010, I was approached by the same publisher (Penguin USA) to illustrate a new book, “Cognitive Surplus” by Clay Shirky. They asked me to do something similar to the “Tribes.” My first instinct was not to do it. But then I started to think, as other people are copying the “Tribes” illustration, why shouldn’t I do it too, especially since it was for the same publisher?