Sabina Kaifi – SDCA Degree Show 2024

All in One, Sister & Mum

Macmillan Prize for Illustration 2024

The real inspiration for this project comes a lot from my own experiences with my sisters; In one way I wanted to show gratitude towards the roles they’ve taken over in my life. As I developed the script for this book early on in this year, a tutor of mine suggested to enter The Macmillan prize for illustration and here are a few finished spreads that I was able to submit.

The book is based on these ordinary conversations that you end up having, due to the loss of a loved one and in particular it is from the perspective of the youngest sister, Bean who discovers these new emotions and dealing with grief, anxiety and loss whilst also embracing the relationships she has with her older sisters Kaia, Tee and Lila.

Front and Back Cover

Spread 3

The notebook is an important symbol in this story, it helps the protagonist deal with her emotions by drawing and writing, which I feel is essential and an important message for the reader to understand.

Spread 5

This spread is important, the flowers are not only an expression of showing anxiety but also brings up ideas surrounding mental health. The Blue flowers act as the protagonists pillars and as shown, she has lost one of them and is trying to bring it back to life.

Spread 11

This spread was very intentional with the way the illustration worked, I wanted the drawing style from the protagonists point of view to come through, I merged the original style of illustration with this childlike style. This spread is supposed to give more insight into what the notebook would be like.

You can take a closer look at the storyboards here!

There Will Come Soft Rains by Sara Teasdale

Concertina Book

This project was so exciting to work on because the meaning behind the poem was so powerful and I loved illustrating someone else’s words and visually bringing it to life.

The poem alludes to this sense of peace by signifying small graces of life like the ‘soft rains’ and ‘wild plum trees’ ; these are just examples of what will carry to live on despite the atrocities, the natural world will pick itself up.

These subtle moments allow the reader to feel gratitude for what we have beyond the materialistic things in the world and this poem celebrates nature and upholds its position in the hierarchy.

Sara Teasdale’s lyric transcends time and is most relevant more than ever in today’s world.

The colours were really purposeful in this piece and I had discussions with my tutor regarding how I could be more intentional with this design and the silhouette in red was one of those conscious decisions that I made, knowing it would create impact.