"The story premise was weighty: “COVID provides a cautionary tale of transmission––between wildlife and humans, of densely packed urban areas, of a globe as wound up and connected as a ball of yarn. In nature, all is connected and in ways that humans have only begun to imagine.”
The art team wanted to provide readers with intriguing imagery for this story. One team member remarked, “This story and these times are so surreal, why not go with surrealism?”
We turned to Dali and Magritte for inspiration and commenced a search for a surrealist illustrator. Our in-house team found an illustrator who was new to magazine editorial work and ready to take on the assignment in a tight time frame. Armed with the conceptual sketches from the Stanford team, she turned around eight near-finished illustrations over the course of a weekend.
The result was a fresh take on (yet another) COVID coverage cover art. The image––a bat and camel on a chessboard––features the headline “It’s Our Move,” allowing space for acknowledgement of the unusual times we find ourselves in, while also providing room for optimism, because moving forward successfully depends on how we, as humans, play it."
From the Judges
Judges loved the typography and felt it really added to the illustrations and the entire piece as a whole. Similarly, the illustrations add to the story being told in an interesting and engaging way. Fantastic job by the illustrator and designer to create a powerful and emotion-invoking piece.
