A satirical visual world for an offbeat church music memoir
Client Goal
Will Duchon, a Connecticut-based music director and writer, approached me to design the visual identity for Musical Whimsy: The Incomplete Edition of Music Notes—a collection of humorous, fictionalized reflections inspired by the weekly music bulletins he wrote for a small-town New England church. The brief called for a hand-crafted, irreverent visual style that captured the wit and warmth of the writing without feeling overly polished or precious.
My Role
I illustrated the entire cover and created a series of interior cartoons that echo the structure and tone of The New Yorker’s iconic single-panel gags. Each illustration corresponds to one of the essays, often featuring fictional congregants or historical composers reimagined in oddball situations. I also handled the layout of the cover using a provided KDP template and selected typefaces to match the tone.
Process & Deliverables
To achieve the desired sketchbook-meets-editorial aesthetic, I illustrated everything directly in Photoshop using a Wacom Bamboo Touch tablet and pen. This allowed me to preserve a raw, expressive line quality throughout the work.
Cover Design: Set on a cream background with musical staff lines doubling as a perch for birds, the front cover illustration nods to the book’s musical themes and dry humor. I used a whimsical and glamorous display type that combines softness and strength—modern yet rooted in classical curves.
Illustration Style: Each interior cartoon was drawn to reflect the unique voice of its corresponding essay. I paired the main type with a loose, hand-drawn web font for captions, visually tying the pages to the book’s informal tone.
File Delivery: Final assets were delivered as print-ready PDFs with layered source files (cover, interior art) for publication via Amazon KDP.
This project was a blend of satire, music history, and small-town storytelling—visually unified through an intentionally sketchy, expressive style that honored both the sacred and the ridiculous.
