In 2015 I was contracted by Adams Publishing in NYC to produce an info graphic about the professional recording studio for a classic textbook called “Audio In Media”. After many artwork revisions and Zoom.me video conferences the project was suddenly cancelled. Adams paid me the agreed fee and I signed an exclusive IP agreement not to resell the artwork. I moved on happy to be paid. A few months later Sheila, the lead of the Adams team, contacted me for another job and I found out then that Adams Publishing claimed chapter 11 and many contributors did not get paid. I thank my organized billing and invoicing from ZoHo.com for getting me paid on time. If I had waited I would be following up with a bankruptcy lawyer for payment.
Sheila was now with Addison Wesley Longman Publishing specializing in mathematics textbooks for advanced secondary school programs. Shelia needed a new cover for a revised version of an AP math textbook and she remembered something she saw on my website portfolio. The image above made an impact.
I originally designed this 3D scene to be a war memorial water feature but Shelia though the image equally represented mathematical concepts such as random numbers and infinity. I was really amazed this image made such an impact. The design is minimal and I think each person sees something else.
I started showing the image to anyone who would look at it and I’ve recorded the most interesting responses below:
- It looks like eternity’s waiting room
- Is it black ice? It must be very cold there.
- A geothermic hot tub made out of carbon fiber perhaps.
- It’s a religious temple to the UFO gods.
David Mckee Smith 