Some commissions grow far beyond what you expect. I never imagined that one of my drawings would end up as a six-metre banner in Madrid, but that is what happened to this healthy summer illustration I created for the Clínica Universidad de Navarra (CUN), one of Spain’s leading private hospitals.
Healthy summer illustration
From a magazine page to a building façade
In March the clinic asked me to illustrate the summer issue of its magazine Noticias.CUN, with several images about nutrition and an active life. What I did not know then was that one of those illustrations, the one created for the editorial, would have a very different destiny: becoming a banner six metres high on the façade of the clinic’s Madrid headquarters.
A Mediterranean town full of life
The image shows a Mediterranean village bustling with life: neighbours chatting, shopkeepers, tourists, all bathed in summer light. It celebrates the Mediterranean diet and a healthy, social way of living, the central theme of that issue.
It was designed as a double-page spread, so when the clinic told me they wanted to use it as a giant banner I had to get back to work. I redrew and extended part of the setting, the sky, the buildings and the seagulls, so the illustration could make the jump to large format without losing quality or balance.
Seeing your work six metres high
Watching something you drew in your studio printed at six metres and hung on a building in Madrid is simply thrilling. It also shows how illustration can leave the pages of a magazine and occupy public space, sending a positive message to everyone who walks by.
The banner was installed in July as part of the clinic’s summer campaign, and the regional newspaper Diario de Navarra covered the story.
A second banner on mental health
It was not the only one. A few months later the clinic turned another of my illustrations into a banner of the same size, this time about mental health. You can see it in mental health illustration on a six-metre banner.
Illustration for health communication
Hospitals, clinics and health organisations use illustration to explain complex topics in a warm, accessible way, from nutrition to mental health. If you need illustrations for a magazine, a poster, a campaign or a large-format piece, see my graphic and editorial illustration work or get in touch and tell me about your project.
