The Coca-Cola annual report is a plum job for an illustrator. In my drawings I tried to combine a fast, fluid line with clean photographic elements in a fresh and straightforward way. Originally I designed painted backgrounds and all of the headlines but what we ended up with was flat color grounds and Franklin Gothic. It’s not exactly what I had in mind, but it works. My influence was a Herbert Leupin Coca-Cola Poster from 1955 that I have in my studio. With all the layered, labored, digitally enhanced design out there, my spontaneous, inky line and clean color provide relief. Simplicity is the last refuge of the complex.