Just put the finishing touches on another customized holiday calendar card for University Hospital. Specifically, this was for the division of transplant surgery, a very meaningful place for me. Every year I am privileged to design their card, and every year I am challenged with how to incorporate the green ribbon into the illustration–the green ribbon symbolizing organ donation. For those who do not know my story, I am a two time liver transplant recipient, the result of an aggressive auto-immune problem. The gift of life is very sobering, and I do not take my second chance of living for granted. Though the auto-immune still continues to plague me, I make it a point to drink in every living moment I can and to make the most of the skills and opportunities given me.
If you are curious to see more, please watch the video I made a few years back (below). It also serves as another portfolio piece and an exploration into some ModNarrative animation.
Regarding the above card, because of the client, I went back to a more realistic style, but my biggest challenge was how to make the vignettes of people enjoying life appear as reflections in the ribbon. I knew color had to be the answer, but it was really quite the brain warp mixing green skin tones and trusting that this was correct. And with every calendar card created for University Hospital, I included the honeybee. Sometimes it’s hidden, this time he’s a little more prominent. To me, nothing represents life quite like bees do and it just so happens that “Hummel” means “Honeybee” in German.
