Doctor Bankenstein

It’s not Halloween, but I have a spooky illustration to share with you, featuring a mad scientist, a creepy castle and frightened villagers running for their lives! The above piece was one I recently created for JP Morgan’s yearly report on where the economy is going in the coming year. I collaborated with my delightful art director John Olds previously (on a similar piece which featured a giant squid grappling with a tall ship), and it was wonderful to work with him again.

I can’t take credit for the concept here; that was the brain child of JP Morgan’s Chairman of Market and Investment Strategy Michael Cembalest, and what a fun concept it is! The metaphor involves likening the central banks to Dr. Frankenstein, artificially re-animating the corpse of the post-recession economy, while the villagers of the world (aka regular people) scramble to find other places to invest. But I definitely had a great time bringing that concept to the page. It was a fun challenge to do something so detailed, and to work in primarily black and white. I had a great time looking up reference photos of castles and mad-scientist gear, and I think all of my recent castle visits really helped inform the mood. It was a great assignment and I’m happy to share it with you!