Hidden in Plain Sight

Common Thread Agency invited me to work on the cover of UNICEF’s Change magazine.

The idea for the cover was to create an illustration in a Wimmelbuch style, showing a busy city scene. It hides 12 heroes, all marked with a small gem symbol. These characters represent different people who help raise mpox awareness—a schoolteacher, a village elder, a local religious leader, and others.

I was given a list of countries where UNICEF has implemented mpox awareness programs, including Uganda, Congo, Rwanda, Côte d’Ivoire, and CAR. A big part of working on this project was gathering visual references—photos and videos—to help make the characters and environments more convincing, drawing on textile patterns, infrastructure, and architectural elements from these countries.