Boardroom cartoon: Game on

"Don't worry if you don't know the rules – we're making it up as we go along."

In the light of the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World, a business client wanted a cartoon about how organisations can deal with the issue of accountability, to establish who is ultimately responsible when things go wrong instead of playing the "blame game".

This series of cartoons always features the same characters, always in a boardroom scenario. It's fun thinking up new variations. See more here.

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Law cartoon: Monster fun

Drawing cartoons for trade and business magazines inevitably means you do a lot of office-based cartoons. That's fine -- particularly as office cartoons often allow for re-use sales later on -- but occasionally it's nice to let rip with something a bit more extravagant, and I think this one is certainly that.

It was drawn for a law magazine to illustrate an article about claiming for vehicles rather than accepting a courtesy car from an insurer. Apparently some people get a bit carried away in their choice of vehicle, so I thought a monster truck would fit the bill.

I'm not usually a fan of drawing vehicles, but Google image search was my friend here. I can't be certain, but I think I may even have emitted a few "vroom-vroom" noises while drawing this.

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Law cartoon: Rhyme and reason

"I'd say you have a watertight case there, boys"

Here's a cartoon I drew recently for a law magazine. Combining contemporary issues with nursery rhymes, fairly tales etc is a technique much used by cartoonists. This is another example, and another. And so it goes ...

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Humorous illustration: Social not working

As well as joke cartoons, I draw humorous illustrations to accompany magazine articles. Here's a social-networking cartoon which I was commissioned to draw for a business magazine. Or perhaps it's a social not working cartoon, the idea being that they're communicating online but not so well in the "offline" world.

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Boardroom cartoon: The economic climate

"I think we must accept that things have got to get worse before they can get even worse."

It's been a while since I posted one of my boardroom cartoons, which I've drawn regularly for a business publication since 2003.

This one is about the current economic doom and gloom, with all the talk of cuts and more cuts. A cartoon for not very cheerful times. Still, I hope it raises a smile. Click the image to enlarge.

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From the archives: Olympics cartoon

"Behind schedule? Not at all. Over here we have the sandpit, the high-jump, hurdles ..."

This was drawn for a business magazine in 2004, shortly before the Athens Games, when the media was going crazy about how the building work was behind schedule etc. No doubt I'll get to recycle this joke for the London 2012 Games!

This six-year-old cartoon looks a little stiff and clunky to me now. It was drawn before I started using brush pens, but I can see the beginnings of my current style coming through. It was also one of the first cartoons I coloured using Adobe Photoshop, although by the look of it I was mainly just using the "fill" tool at this point.

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Boardroom cartoon: Business incentives

"These are a crucial part of our new campaign designed to get employees walking to work."

Here is another in the series of boardroom cartoons which I've drawn regularly for a business publication since 2003. Click to enlarge.

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Boardroom cartoon: A man for our times

"Our new finance director, Ebeneezer, tells me can start immediately on identifying areas where we can make cuts."

This year seems to have been characterised by cuts, redundancies and companies banging on about cutting waste. So when I was commissioned to do a festive gag in my ongoing series of boardroom cartoons, to be used as an Christmas e-card, it occurred to me to throw Ebeneezer Scrooge in there. He'd probably be seen as an asset to most companies these days.

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Never underestimate the power of cartoons

"I've called you in here to keep you in the loop, as we've made some very long term investments."

A business magazine I work for has run a short feature about my cartoons, alongside the editor's five favourite gags of the past three years. It is usually such a constant battle trying to convince people that cartoons can be a powerful asset for their business that it's a joy when you know someone gets it. Here's an excerpt:

"You can never underestimate the power of a cartoon to get straight to the heart of the matter and say succinctly what it can take several pages to explain. This was brought home to me when I attended an annual summit and found Royston's cartoon from issue 33 (above) as part of one CEO's presentation."

That could not be more on-message! Cartoons work. If you want to commission me, or to re-use any of my existing cartoons, email me on roystonrobertson [at] gmail.com.

For more, visit my portfolio site.

Business magazine cartoon: Bank on it

"I'm sensing that there's a lack of trust here, Mr Trubshaw."

Here's a cartoon drawn for an international business magazine to accompany an article about how difficult it is to know what to do with one's money these days (I wish I had that dilemma!) what with the lack of faith in banking after the financial meltdown, the Bernard Madoff scandal and so on.

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Boardroom cartoon: Snack time

"Owing to the very real threat of biscuit-related injuries, the snack of choice for meetings will now be blancmange."

Anyhoo ... enough about the other cartoonist called Royston, here's a drawing from the current one (click to enlarge). This is the latest in the boardroom series, which I draw regularly for a trade publication. It accompanied an article about the number of accidents caused at work by biscuits. It's quite a lot, apparently!

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Swine flu cartoon

"With swine flu, we need to get the message across to the public that there is no need to panic."

This was drawn for a publication for health service managers. It's a regular commission I've had for some years, and the cartoon always features the same characters at a board meeting. So it was fun to put them all in swine flu masks.

You can see other cartoons in the series here, here, and (a very old one) here.

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Cartoon montage: It's all about the Benjamins

Here's an excerpt from a cartoon I drew recently for a business magazine. It was a last-minute decision to use a real image of a banknote and I think it, er, paid off as it works quite well.

It was for an international magazine, hence the use of a "Benjamin" rather than a British banknote. This kind of thing is quick and easy to do these days, thanks to Google Images and Photoshop. I had to tamper with the banknote a bit, making the "100" bigger and clearer. I hope this doesn't mean I'm going to jail?

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Legal cartoon: Fun with mortgage fraud

"I got into mortgage fraud just as the market started to fall."

Here's a cartoon I drew for a business magazine to accompany a piece on mortgage fraud. Given recent events in the news, you may like to imagine that the guy on the right is a Member of Parliament, but I couldn't possibly comment.

This is not the first time I've done a cartoon playing on the "convict's arrows" motif, which is so beloved of cartoonists. And it probably won't be the last

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Credit crunch/recession cartoon

Here's a cartoon for these lean times, drawn recently for a regular business client. Sometimes you can just about get away with the wordy caption.

So how's your recession going? I've noticed a drop in enquiries regarding cartoon jobs lately, which I assume must be down to people feeling the pinch. I've certainly done fewer company Christmas cards than usual, with some clients saying they're not bothering this year.

Still, as Mervyn King, the Bank of England boss is fond of saying, we'll get through it! As though we have any other option. Well, I suppose we could go for the whole jumping off a tall building thing. But for cartoonists, who have depicted that scenario many times, that would be too much of a cliche.

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Boardroom cartoon: A bit topical

I do cartoons for various business/trade magazines. Usually they're drawn to accompany an article, in this case one about governing boards putting together questionnaires to assess their own effectiveness. But on occasion you can allow a spot of topicality to creep in – which is what happened here.

Note to non-UK readers: there has been a spate of cases where officials have left top-secret documents on trains and buses lately. The public reaction to this phenomenon was summed up neatly by the comedian Jeremy Hardy on Radio 4's News Quiz: "Everyone says, That's ridiculous! What kind of person would do that? And then you stop and think ... I would do that ..."

Royston's portfolio website