As a common basis in the description of the “Sad man” who carries out the poem, Maria Simon and me interpret him as an empty and insubstantial person. From it arose the two major criteria of the image: gray color and environmental vocuum. An empty man, with nothing inside him, would be the one who, if he were made of glass it would be transparent, we would see through him. And that’s how we came up with the idea of using a translucent head, in addition to placing it on the gray core of nowhere.

      It was one of the most difficult images to make, since it took me a lot to find the final aesthetic. Initially, I was looking for a precious figure. I was trying to get a bust of great beauty, as if it were part of a perfume advertisement. In this transparent, empty and precious head, I would add a couple of tears to symbolize sadness. As far as I’m concerned, that way of designing the image made sense, because beauty is one of the great tools of the advertising world, systematically used to support the sale. When I was almost done with that version, I got angry and deleted it. The idea still sounds good to me and fits the song quite well, but something was squeaking. The representation I had created was a kind of beautiful robot whose circuit breaks and loses oil through its eyes. A lovely bust that cries. But even if tears fall down, the robot does not feel sadness, nor can transmit it to anyone. An empty man, a man who cries, but does not affect him or others, is not a man . It is just a machine . It has no hope.

      In the second and final version of the image I wanted to represent an empty man but sad, also. But not sad because his tears fall down, but sorry because he becomes capable of feeling and transmitting his sadness. The theme begins by saying: “I have a man who is sad because his sadness has no sadness.” It seems the man of such song does not feel the sadness of so empty and sad as he is feeling. But, already nearing the end, the poem says that this man seeks a world of his own because in the world in which he lives he has become a denatured being. Therefore that man wants to change. By representing a sad man who experiences his own sadness, he shows us an uncomfortable situation and a door of hope opens to find a solution. A sad robot needs a mechanic. However, this sad man needs to change the world.

                                                                                                              Jordi Roca Zanuy