Visualizing Change

Change is possible when we can see ourselves taking new actions and living into a new vision of our future. People learn well through pictures and the quality of those pictures matters. Working with an illustrator, we can create sets of images that weave a cohesive story across a campaign, training, or curriculum.

We partner with people who are skilled in bringing ideas to life. These partnerships with artists and illustrators allow us to:

• translate complex concepts into beautiful and contextually relevant scenarios,
• remove extraneous detail so teachers and learners can focus on the information that is most important to convey,
• help people see themselves in new ways.

Flip Chart for Peer Maternal Mental Health Support

We were delighted to partner with Dr. Huynh-Nhu (Mimi) Le (of George Washington University’s Mother and Babies Mood and Health Research Program) and Elena McEwan, M.D. (who leads the CRS program teams in Ghana and Kenya). Together, we developed illustrations and a flip chart format that supported low literacy delivery of the Integrated Mothers and Babies Course.

The curriculum was already out in the wild, and more support was needed for mothers’ comprehension and facilitators’ teaching. We developed over 80 illustrations to support peer-led counseling sessions, teaching concepts in cognitive behavioral therapy for maternal mental health across 13 sessions. Read about it and see more examples here.

Working with illustrators isn’t just about making the materials beautiful or making the curriculum delivery consistent-though both improve uptake of information. Working with an illustrator is a co-creative process to bring technical expertise to life, making it applicable, relatable, and immediately helpful to the learners.

Want to see more of our work developing IEC and SBCC materials? Check out these projects:

• Count the Kicks, promoting a stillbirth prevention tool and app to moms in their 3rd trimester (U.S.)
• Child-optimized Financial Education, a 12-module curriculum to teach financial literacy
• The “Is it?” game for My Health, My Life, positive youth development through an illustrated story-telling game
• Remote coaching for cooperative development, supporting remote teaching, and applying core business concepts in less-resourced settings.