Only 3% of women in breast cancer clinical trials are Black women, even though they are 40% more likely to die from breast cancer than white women.

Even when insurance and access to care is the same as other groups, Black women still experience disproportionately poor outcomes, unnecessary intervention (surgeries) and death.

Why? A lack of trust in the white medical establishment’s ongoing and historically unequal treatment of black people.

But awareness isn't enough when deaths are this high.

We needed more than talk, we need action.

So we created the world's first digital resource specifically designed for Black women by Black women to directly address the problem.

We used an unequal symbol graphic depicted in the color white overlaid on black skin and positioned it over black women's breasts to highlight that, in the US, Black women are not receiving equal treatment in their breast cancer care to that of white women.

In order to capture a large range of diversity in color, shape and tone — and to be able to depict bare breasts on social platforms — we opted to visualize the message through traditional illustration.

We focused on capturing the essence and cultural flavor of black women with illustration through study of hairstyle, skin tone and body type.

All work is hand-crafted. First drafts were done in pencil to capture the mood — traditional pen, ink & paint followed. A full typographic family was custom created in the same hand as illustrator creating a unified aesthetic.