We handcrafted this poster using the ashes from the cremated body of a woman who died from Aids, to create a portrait of her, paying tribute to her and the thousands of others just like her that have died from Aids.

Creating illustrations from cremated ashes is a tremendously layered and painstaking process of crafting.

One of the most challenging aspects was the fact that one mistake could ruin the artwork. Due to the sensitive medium, there is no option to redo or retouch mishaps. Working with a small amount of available ash from the family meant that one needed to be very precise.

Without tonality, the illusion of depth and dimension was achieved through layering of the material and proximity, a fairly new challenge in illustration in itself.

Another difficulty was applying the ash to the paper. If the medium was too moist, the adhesive would absorb the ash and would compromise the integrity of the artwork texture; when applied too late, the adhesive wouldn’t hold and particles would fall off.

We had to make sure the craft was flawless and execution right the first time.

The campaign was incredibly well received, despite it's fairly controversial origin, with 100% stakeholder buy-in, engagement and approval. This led to client wishing to extend the campaign into:

- hang the posters as exhibits in the Intoto Gallery

- to create a 3D printed head out of the soil version as a further display piece

- to photograph, print and distribute copies of the posters to Aids relief and awareness points

We have already been approached by other families to create portraits of their loved ones, the price of which will be donated to the foundation.

While this is just the very beginning of the campaign, we believe the posters themselves, as design and illustration pieces alone, are worth entering for your consideration.