Not Home Yet

Project details

Year

2022

Programme

illustration

Practices

commercial

Minor

Branding

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In her research “Not Home Yet” Dinja is looking for ways to start a conversation about feeling at home with young children through illustrations. At a time when we move from one crisis to another, people increasingly need a safe haven. While most children in the Netherlands are doing well at home, unfortunately there are also children with difficult home situations. A difficult home situation can arise if there are financial problems at home, if there is domestic violence, but also if parents get divorced. These cases have many similarities and are therefore also taken together as a group. The problems the children experience at home can have a negative influence on their well-being. A consequence of this is a reduced sense of home.

“Not Home Yet” is a conversation piece, designed by illustrator and designer Dinja van Meegersen, about the visualization of feelings of alienation and belonging. Dinja is passionate about evoking different emotions with her work, by implementing interaction and looking at the emotional effects of colors. She designed a picture book for children who have trouble feeling at home. This book can be used at home, but also at school, at after school care or in child psychology. The goal is for children to acknowledge these feelings and eventually create a conversation between them and those involved with the child.

The story is about a young girl who is moving houses. It is inspired by some aspects of my own experience, combined with aspects of my research. To help children acknowledge and recognize feelings of home and rootlessness, Dinja visualized these feelings by bringing them to life. She implemented warm and cold colors, to represent the different feelings. By mainly using these colors and thinking consciously about the use of the spreads, she tried to keep the simplicity.

With her story Dinja wanted to focus on the feelings of home, because the attention is often on the rational part. She also wanted to let children know that it’s okay to sometimes not feel at home and what things help with this. Here she focused on different memories that can remind you of home, like music or a certain smell. Children can decide for themselves what this is for them. She also decided to mainly focus on the main character and not on people around her. This way, it doesn’t exclude anyone because everyone has a different home situation.

More of my work can be found in the links below:
Website – https://dinjavanmeegersen.nl
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/drawingsbydinja/