I wanted a cartoon to illustrate my blog post on Medium, LinkedIn and Substack which conveys the impact of community forums for business. I combined three common stereotypical symbols into one caricature: One, use of conversation bubbles to symbolize community forums; two, use of charts, especially with increasing revenue, to indicate prospering business; and three, a businessman clad in suits with a suitcase.
I made many sketches to flesh out the ideas. You can see that the general idea came about by combining these stereotypical elements. The facial features of the businessman took shape in sketch on lower left, to the right of the drawing pad.