The object of this student project was to create a conceptual design for a feature opener spread in a travel magazine. The theme of the article is a story about the Toraja people — an ethnic group in Indonesia which treats their dead as merely sick.
Approach
The goal was to inspire the reader's empathy, instead of creeping them out. Therefore I tried to show this unusual Indonesian ritual as an act of love to their dead relatives.
The embroidery was created in Photoshop by building shapes from scanned cross stitched elements.
Results
Placing an embroidery next to the photo of a smiling family posing with their dead relatives helps to portray them as being like any other family. The embroidery concept helps tell the story of the Toraja people as one not about obsession with death, but as a celebration of love that goes beyond mortality.
