We handcrafted this poster using the soil that covered the grave of a little boy who died from Aids, to create a portrait of him, paying tribute to him and the thousands of others just like him that have died from Aids.

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

One of the most challenging aspects was a timeous delivery using a restrictive medium.

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

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 also been approached by an art dealer offering to buy posters created from the soil for R30000 to R50000, the proceeds of which will go 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.