Unused TimeOut NY cover

I was asked to create a cover alongside several other illustrators for TimeOut NY's Date Issue which features 100 single New Yorker profiles to be conceivably snatched up by someone in their readership. In the end they editors went in another direction but the initial idea was to convey "single in the city".

Being single in NYC can be tough. The city is chock full of good looking and interesting people who are either taken by someone else or unavailable for one reason or another. I immediately acquainted this to trying to hail a cab in Manhattan which, other than time shared with a quality partner, is just what a New Yorker wants to find on a bustling Friday night.

We've all been there: endlessly you see a taxi turn onto your street six blocks away and as it gets closer you see that it's either off duty or taken. Finally you see that one open taxi and as it gets within hailing distance somebody else snatches it up.

So that's what I saw this date issue as - your lucky night. One of those random pink taxi cabs that you see around town looking available and inviting (with a prospective date inside) as other prospective but unavailable cabs blow by. For the ad space on the cab roof I put a placard flush with roses - the standard flower for date night. The light atop the cab, unlike the others, flashes available.

A nice idea that maybe was a little too subtle for the cover. Oh well, I'll get them next time.