Magazine Ad

I worked with local creative agency Sockeye to create this illustration for Doernbecher Children's Hospital. My starting point was one line of text:

“And with laughter and gizmology they banished the scaries forever.”

- but other than that it was all open. So I started asking myself questions. I needed to dissect each word to find the appropriate overall tone. 1) What is gizmology? A quirky madeup word about very real hi-tech stuff - all the beeps and boops of a hospital. Can I show this in a more abstract way? 2) Who is they? Okay, they is the doctors. That was easy. They're laughing? Like snickering? No. What kind of laughter? Is this just an expression of their joyful dispositions? Maybe they're celebrating a victory? 3) What and who are the scaries? How scary are they? Cancer is scary, that's for sure. I'm not being asked to draw cancer am I?! Oh boy. And then - where does this all take place? So many questions.