by Craig Frazier
276 pages, hardcover, $50
Published by Goff Books
goffbooks.com

As soon as exuberant colors welcome readers to this collection, Mr. Human commands attention. A character by illustrator Craig Frazier, Mr. Human has an oversized body, a tiny head, no face and no emotion. Yet through his posture or the tilt of his hat, he’s an expressive everyman telling stories and navigating Frazier’s metaphorical world.

Known as a conceptual illustrator whose work expresses simplicity, elegance and wit, Frazier designed Drawn to showcase more than 400 of his illustrations and sketches created during more than four decades working in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a graphic designer who could draw, he offered both skills to clients until the mid-1990s when he switched to illustration full time. Frazier’s visual journey includes a brief biography and upbeat insights on his career of putting pen to paper.

At the heart of Drawn is his tribute to the call that has rewarded him at pivotal moments in his life. Armed with his sketchbook that offers a bottomless bag of thumbnails to develop, Frazier creates illustrations of complex topics that inform and entertain. For example, asset management: Frazier draws Mr. Human standing in front of sailboats on the distant ocean. He cradles a miniature version of the boats and sea in his arms as his head tilts down to gaze at his treasure.

The image needs no words. It’s direct, imaginative, memorable. “Explore the obvious. Then dig deeper,” writes Frazier. Don’t accept your first ideas. An illustrator’s earliest solutions may already be imagined by viewers. What’s fun about drawing that? —Ruth Hagopian