Notes on Innovation
The Bush Foundation
Pollen Midwest
Design Director: Melanie Walby
Narrative Heart Illustrations: Abraham Ziaimehr
Icon design, layout design, and spot illustration
Each year since 2013, Pollen Midwest has been creating narrative-driven, art-drenched case study books for the Bush Foundation’s Prize for Community Innovation. I was hired on in 2020 to create the following for their final book in the series:
Seventeen unique icons conveying the characteristics of innovation.
Three illustrations per story conveying the chapter titles
My goal was to depict each characteristics of innovation in a cohesive icon set and create 3 illustrations in a distinctively different style to coincide with each chapter title. For the characteristics of innovation icons, I channeled a very Midwestern summer feel into line-art based icons. For example, for building community I illustrated a group of people gathering around a campfire. For reframing risk, I showed a person fearlessly diving off of a dock into unknown waters.
For the chapter title illustrations I used a more organic, block print style. I read each story thoroughly, took notes on themes throughout, and created illustration sets for the chapter titles based on those themes.
As the project continued, I was asked to design and lay out each of the stories in the 150 page book.
I worked closely with design director Melanie Walby to keep the feel of the previous books while updating and innovating on the design to make it unique. I used typography and illustration to my advantage, creating bold pull quotes and taking elements of my spot illustrations into different areas of each story for continuity and visual interest.
