The Waiting Room (Orofacial Cleft Comic Book)
Audience: Children aged 7-9 who are curious about clefts, or may have heard some wild rumors about them.
Medium: Procreate, Photoshop, InDesign
Purpose: To dispel some common myths associated with this condition. Orofacial clefts are often the source of fearful speculation, which can lead to bullying and social isolation. In developing countries this isolation can be even worse. By attempting to dispel some of the misconceptions surrounding clefts I hope to ameliorate some of this, and hopefully foment understanding between kids at a formative age.
I had the opportunity to work with the University of Dundee School of Dentistry on this project. One of the professors had the idea to produce a poster dispelling myths related to orofacial cleft. As the target demographic for this poster was 7-9 year olds, I suggested expanding the idea into a comic, as I felt this might be a more appealing medium.
I worked with the professor to refine the list of myths to dispel, then began assembling a mood board of imagery that displayed the broad variety of how clefts are expressed on the human face.
As the characters would be the literal face of this project, I started with them. I wanted this piece to have a sense of diversity and inclusion, so I chose to use children of varying ethnic backgrounds.
Step 2: Ideation
I began this project in my sketchbook, then moved on to Adobe Fresco, and then Adobe Photoshop for rendering. I ultimately did final layouts and typesetting in Adobe InDesign.
Step 4: Render
For reasons of ease and economy, the interior of this project was initially scoped to be a black and white piece. However, the colorist did such a good job on the front and back covers that she was asked to do the interior of the comic as well. I think she absolutely nailed it.
