Crisis Management: Breast Cancer & Race

Why crisis management? Because designing something is like managing a small disaster, putting unorganized thoughts and all sorts of stuff together and make it look good, understandable and fabulous.
I found the breast cancer story thought-provoking and had a hard time trying to think of a design that worked with the story. I worked on the cover first and it took me a really long time because I was striving to make it look like her. Tracing her facial features was challenging as there weren't any proper portraits of her so in the end it turned out to be part her and part imagination (I also had to look around and see how other people illustrated people - shadows, eyes - I learnt a lot but wished I knew more). I somehow couldn't quite capture that laughter part in her face - I think I just couldn't draw a proper laughing mouth so it ended bring somewhat a half-smile. I was semi-pleased with how the cover turned out in the end and I felt that the general feel of it (the color) was inline with the tone of the story. But the illustration certainly needs work!
The feature part of it, I wasn't too pleased with the outcome. I somehow was obsessed about making everything fit (when we didn't really have to) so in the end it looked very organized but there's definitely a significant lack of creativity and thought-process in the final design. I think I could have put in more effort into making sure the design reflects the content than pushing the envelope on making all the text fits.











Below are other two designs that I made in my other job/life outside of Vox: one for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday celebration and the other for a white privilege workshop. Race is always a touchy issue and I tried my best to be sensitive but bold here. I hope I succeeded and I am quite pleased with the outcome of both designs. I felt they said something important of what the content/issue was. Comments welcome.