In an era where technological change is rapidly reshaping creativity and the act of image-making, the value of the illustrator increasingly lies not in our capacity to interpret, situate, and care.

This session explores what it means to be a ‘human’ illustrator through the case study of an ongoing commissioned NHS maternity unit project: the creation of twelve large-scale illustrations for a hospital in Southwark + Westminister.

Positioning illustration as both a creative and relational practice, I argue that ‘human’ illustration is not only defined by hand-made aesthetics, but by the illustrator’s capacity to engage with complexity, lived experience, and interdisciplinarity. My approach to this project is deeply shaped by three intersecting identities and forms of expertise: as a Black person from South London with an embodied understanding of the nature/politics/identities of the geographic and demographic area the hospital serves; as a woman engaging critically with the realities of maternity spaces as sites of both joy and loss; and as a health sciences academic drawing on research in inequality, person-centred care, and critical pedagogy as a foundation to my illustration practice.

Using case study methodology, I will explore how these perspectives inform the research process, visual decision-making and narrative framing. This includes navigating tensions between institutional expectations and authentic community reflection, alongside designing imagery that holds space for multiple maternal experiences.

This session reframes the illustrator’s role as one grounded in situated knowledge, ethical sensitivity, and interdisciplinary insight, which will always be distinctly human qualities.

Amberlee from Reconcile Journal

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