Nutrition with a learning disability
by Alkisti-Niki Photiou
For Web
Illustration, Editing
Software used: Procreate, Photoshop
Background —
Creating a nutritional guide for carers of children with learning disabilities.
Problem —
Create accurate digital and branded depictions of healthy, portioned foods mentioned in text by researching nutrition in the style of a child's textbook minimal vector art.
Goal —
Supplementing and complementing the text with accurate illustrations of healthy food to encourage carers of children disabilities not only to read the article but to also take action in offering nutritional food to children with learning disabilities.
Approach —
Performed in-depth research with the help of dietitian and nutritionist to develop an accurate and succinct guide with appropriate illustrations. Creating coherent illustrations that respond to the brand of the author/nutritionist, that are appealing to everyone with a distinct minimal style and colour palette.
RESEARCH & CONCEPT.
Reading and researching the subject of nutrition specifically for the children with learning disabilities was completely new to me. Everything I thought I knew about nutrition was not necessarily applicable for this group as well. With the help of the Nutritionist/Author, I was able to choose and create groups of appropriate food that can be included in the illustrations as well as responding to the text.
BRANDING ILLUSTRATIONS & STYLE.
The Nutritionist/Author had an already established but also slightly developing brand. My task was to create, in their words, 'cartoon-like, accurate, minimal illustrations in the style of a children's textbook that appeals to children and their carers'.
Thinking in design and illustration terms, I translated their request as succinct line art and vector art with a touch of 'cartoon' element and strict colour palette.
I got inspired by Christopher Lee's vector art, but without the personification of inanimate objects, in combination with my own more 'loose' line drawing style.
A few iterations later, where we decided that shading, gradients and lighting was not something my client wanted in the work, I also suggested to draw inspiration from the famous book 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' by Jeff Kinney.
PRODUCTION.
Combining those two artists along with my own style, we created a more accurate branded content for the nutrition guide, without having to sacrifice the quality of the illustrations and making the foods depicted easily understandable and pleasant to look at.
But one thing was still missing, the characters that the client wanted needed to communicate emotions and not to be passive. This was a challenge as they specifically preferred all the illustrations with the characters to be done in line-art style which is a more abstract way of communicating facial expressions and emotions.
Next, I decided to combine line art as the client wanted, with minimal colour on objects to bring out the vitality of nutrition and healthy eating.
The client was extremely happy with the final result of the illustrations as it remained on brand, communicated well the text and was visually appealing to draw carers and children to read the guide and value it as an e-booklet worth to keep re-reading in the future.
You can find the final e-booklet by clicking, here.
Or see below for the published e-booklet with Coventry University.