Art Direction
Illustration
2024
Context
Most adolescent health modules arrive with visuals that these communities can't connect with. For young people in fishing villages along the Odisha coast, that gap is visible. The module needed illustrations that felt like they were made for them.
Solution
We created illustrations rooted in coastal community life. Characters, settings, and situations that reflected the everyday reality of the kids in these sessions. Warm, expressive, and specific enough to make conversations about puberty, relationships, and growing up feel approachable.
Strategy
We worked closely with the Dakshin research team, going through field data and community research before putting anything on paper. Understanding the physical environment, cultural identity, and everyday life of these communities shaped every illustration. Given the sensitivity of the subject matter and the age group, the work needed to feel like it belonged to the young people using it.
Result
The module was distributed to community resource persons across Odisha and the Andamans, where it is used in schools and community settings to facilitate sessions with young people on adolescent health. The illustrations are now part of conversations happening in classrooms and communities that rarely see themselves reflected in this kind of material.
