creative director
graphic designer
illustrator
web designer
creative director
graphic designer
illustrator
web designer
We Are Not a Virus
Illustration
Coronavirus, having originated from China, has resulted in heightened racism and hatred towards those of Asian heritage, which I have experienced firsthand. The poster was created in hopes of advising against such discrimination.
rough sketch
My plan was to create an illustration with prominently Asian facial features so I researched and browsed through Pinterest for inspiration. I was the most inspired by Janice Sung's work, as she often creates beautiful illustrations of Asian women. Her use of straight edges among the soft feminine curves in her illustration inspired the straight edged hair ends of my character. Being an individual of Asian heritage, I also observed my own facial features to create the rough sketch that can be seen on the right.
refined sketch
Since this sketch was done on paper with pencil, I refined the rough lines, as well as the facial features, so that I can easily use the sketch to create the vector work on Adobe Illustrator. The nose has always been a feature that I struggle with the most, so I left a placeholder circle instead so that I could work on it later.
final sketch
Once I started creating the vector art on Adobe Illustrator, I had a better idea of what I wanted her nose to look like. Since I've always found it difficult to draw digitally without a reference, I drew the nose in on paper and inserted a photo of it on Illustrator.
color palette
Her skin tone was chosen very carefully, comparing my own skin tone and the color that was being displayed on the screen constantly. After inserting the blush tones on her cheeks and her nose, as well as the shadings underneath the eyebrows and around the bridge of her nose, I decided that I wanted to use the least amount of colors in this poster by using the same color as her lips. I also opted for a dark gray shade, instead of pure black so that the illustration and the composition is unified without having the dark shades stand out more than they should.
#2F2B24
#DB7C65
#E2A388
#EDC5A7
typography
To emphasize the straight, geometric aspects of the illustration, I looked for a typeface with a perfect circle as its "O", but also smooth curves that can be seen on the "S" to correspond to the free-flowing edges of the illustration. The same dark gray shade from the illustration was used for the text.
