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Illustration Portfolio

DFID UK illustration commission: Women safety GIF & editorial illustrations

A women safety GIF and a number of editorial illustrations were commissioned by DFID UK. The aid agency featured the artworks in its online campaign on 25 November 2017 for #16DaysofActivism, a hashtag observing the International Day to End Violence against Women & Girls.

Women safety GIF: Commissioned by DFID UK for interview with CEO of India’s Safecity app | Ruba Saqr Art & Illustration Portfolio | People animated illustration, women empowerment GIF, end violence against women, character looping illustration, Indian woman GIF and illustration, illustrated map GIF, woman holding mobile phone GIF, editorial GIF.

The Brief

DFID Inclusive, part of the UK Government’s now-defunct Department for International Development (DFID UK), commissioned me to create a women safety GIF with a number of editorial illustrations to go with it (still frames from the hero GIF).

DFID’s team wanted to post this editorial artwork alongside an interview on their blog. It was with ElsaMarie D’Silva, the Founder and CEO of India-based project and app, Safecity.

In effect, the aid agency published the interview late 2017 with the GIF and illustrations on their blog and social media feeds, mainly on Twitter (aka X).

Safecity, whose then-Twitter handle was @pinthecreep, is an app and platform that crowdsources personal stories of gender-based harassment and violence in public spaces. Its aim is to help Indian women identify the hotspots of violence in their cities, by pinning those locations to the app’s map. The more women pin a single location, the more it helps other women avoid it. The aim is to prevent possible incidents of harassment and violence against women and girls from occurring.

Significantly, the interview was part of the 16 Days of Activism online campaign, observed annually by civil society organisations and UN Women, the UN organization dedicated to gender equality and women empowerment. Every year, aid agencies like DFID UK, join the campaign on social media and on their blogs.

Additionally, women’s rights activists have been observing 25 November as a day against gender-based violence, also known as The International Day to End Violence against Women & Girls (#EndVAWG), since 1981.

Women safety illustration: Commissioned by DFID UK for interview with CEO of India’s Safecity app | Ruba Saqr Art & Illustration Portfolio | People illustration, women empowerment illustration, end violence against women, character illustration, Indian woman illustration, illustrated map, woman holding mobile phone illustration, editorial illustration.
Women safety editorial illustration: Indian woman holding mobile phone against an illustrated map backdrop | Ruba Saqr Art & Illustration Portfolio | People illustration, women empowerment illustration, end violence against women, character illustration, Indian woman illustration, illustrated map, editorial illustration.
Women safety editorial illustration: Indian woman holding mobile phone illustration with stalker behind her | Ruba Saqr Art & Illustration Portfolio | People illustration, women empowerment illustration, end violence against women, character illustration, Indian woman illustration, illustrated map, editorial illustration.
Women safety editorial illustration: Indian woman’s hand holding mobile phone against an illustrated map backdrop to report her stalker | Ruba Saqr Art & Illustration Portfolio | People illustration, women empowerment illustration, end violence against women, character illustration, Indian woman illustration, illustrated map, editorial illustration.

The Process

DFID Inclusive asked me to come up with a concept for the GIF and the illustrations.

Therefore, I suggested an animated illustration (GIF) depicting an Indian woman finding out a predatory man was stalking her. The woman takes action and reports the incident on her Safecity app.

She basically “pins the creep” to the app’s map to help other women avoid the hotspot where she encountered him.

My work process started with doing research on Safecity. This helped me understand the cultural background of the project, the activism of the people behind it, as well as other art-direction details like the project’s colour palette and branding choices.

The Illustration: Colour Palette

I knew DFID’s interview was part of 16 Days of Activism. One of the hashtags was #OrangeTheWorld. UN Women chose orange as the signature colour for its annual campaign to end violence against females.

With this in mind, I decided to use the colour orange in the GIF and illustrations. This way I could tie the artwork with the campaign. Moreover, the digital push pins on Safecity’s app were in purple. Which is why I chose this colour for the illustrated map pins and the stalkers’ hoodies as seen in my illustrations.

Women Safety GIF: Context and Inner Strength

The Indian context was also important, since this was an Indian app. What is more, I wanted the facial expression on the heroine’s face to express her annoyance as she “sensed” the creepy-looking stalker behind her.

But I also wanted to communicate her inner strength. Especially in the moment when she turns around and we see her mobile phone “confronting” the perpetrator. She then goes ahead and “pins” him to the app.

Women safety illustration: Commissioned by DFID UK for interview with CEO of India’s Safecity app | Ruba Saqr Art & Illustration Portfolio | People illustration, women empowerment illustration, end violence against women, character illustration, Indian woman illustration, illustrated map, woman holding mobile phone illustration, editorial illustration.
Women safety editorial illustration: Indian woman holding mobile phone illustration with stalker behind her | Ruba Saqr Art & Illustration Portfolio | People illustration, women empowerment illustration, end violence against women, character illustration, Indian woman illustration, illustrated map, editorial illustration.
Women safety editorial illustration: Indian woman holding mobile phone against an illustrated map backdrop | Ruba Saqr Art & Illustration Portfolio | People illustration, women empowerment illustration, end violence against women, character illustration, Indian woman illustration, illustrated map, editorial illustration.
Women safety editorial illustration: Indian woman’s hand holding mobile phone against an illustrated map backdrop to report her stalker | Ruba Saqr Art & Illustration Portfolio | People illustration, women empowerment illustration, end violence against women, character illustration, Indian woman illustration, illustrated map, editorial illustration.

Client

DFID Inclusive was part of the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID UK). The latter was a ministerial department from May 1997 to September 2020. It merged with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to create FCDO

About Client

The client is a UK-based governmental development aid agency for international assistance

Year

2017

Illustration Format

This frame-by-frame animated illustration, depicting an Indian woman reporting a predatory man on her smartphone, was exported as a GIF. The accompanying editorial illustrations were submitted in a raster JPG file in an RGB colour space, as they were destined for an online blog and DFID UK’s social media pages.

Illustration Technique

These women safety illustrations and the hero GIF were created digitally using several android drawing apps on Samsung Galaxy Tab S3, an Android tablet. The artwork was then coloured digitally (and arranged as a GIF) in Adobe Photoshop on desktop, with the help of a Wacom tablet. I no longer use these apps and tablets, as I have since transitioned to a different illustration process. I now use Procreate on the iPad as well as Affinity Photo 2 on both iPad and desktop, with the help of a Wacom Cintiq.

Keywords

Women Empowerment GIF, Women Safety GIF, Editorial Illustration, Women Empowerment Illustration, People Illustration, Character Illustration, Stop Violence Against Women GIF

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