Not Your Toy! is a commissioned design project developed in close collaboration with curator Angela Vitanovska, created as visual support for a research and exhibition project addressing labor exploitation across textile, construction, agricultural, and service industries.
Project info:
Designing around sensitive social issues carries real risk; visuals can easily veer into exploitation, aggression, or cold detachment.
The project needed to communicate the gravity of labor exploitation honestly and powerfully, without aestheticizing suffering or losing the audience through heavy-handed design.
Problem:
An illustrative visual style was developed to balance poetic expression with clear communication, depicting workers most commonly subjected to exploitation in a way that humanizes rather than sensationalizes.
A minimalist layout ensures readability while maintaining a serious, considered tone. Red was deployed as the dominant visual element with deliberate intent, functioning as a warning signal that communicates severity without needing to explain itself.
Design Intent:
Insight:
The most impactful social design doesn't shout; rather, it bears witness. A poetic, illustrative approach can carry emotional weight that photography or data-driven design sometimes can't, because it invites the viewer to sit with the subject rather than be overwhelmed by it. Clarity and restraint, in this context, are a form of respect.
Outcome:
The result is a piece of visual communication that holds the weight of its subject matter — serious and direct, yet considered enough to open dialogue rather than close it. Developed through close client collaboration, the design reflects both the curatorial vision and the responsibility that comes with representing exploited communities.
Brochure Design
Poster Design
Layout Design
Illustration
Editorial Design
Typography
Graphic Design