Social Transformation for Peace
in Colombia
in Colombia
Educational leaflets for peace-building
Topic: Conflict Resolution
Field: Social Design, Educational Design
Skills in Action: Communication Design, Print Design, Research, Design Thinking, Creative Writing, Illustration, Lettering
How to promote dialogue, understanding and transformation towards peace amongst the different actors in rural communities that have been fractured by decades of war? The answer came in the form of two illustrated leaflets that serve as a tool to support peace building workshops. They tell a story of community empowerment through collective resilience and active dialogue.
The problem
The non-governmental organization Alliance for Peace (APAZ) has been actively engaged in regions across Colombia, working to facilitate the reintegration of former guerrilla fighters into local communities as part of the peace agreement signed in 2016.
Their work included various on-site workshops (see pictures on the right) in communities facing social challenges and they needed a communication tool to visualize key concepts, empowering people to grasp and internalize these ideas. The objective was to instill confidence and foster agency among community members, encouraging them to play an active role in the peace-building process.
My role and process
My responsibility in the project was to distill a great amount of theoretical and research documentation on the peace-building process provided by APAZ into two concise and easy to understand communication pieces. After going through the documents, I wrote simplified texts and then used lettering and illustration to visualize the stories as told by different characters that are part of the community (see process pictures below).
Initial documentation
Mind map of essential concepts and structure
Summary and creative writing
Story board
Hand sketches
Hand sketches
The solution
The goal extended beyond mere reading — the leaflets were designed to serve as practical tools. Due to the project's unique challenge of operating in remote rural areas where access to technology was not guaranteed, the decision was made to create printed pieces that could be manually handled. These materials weren't just for reading; they became versatile tools for note-taking, highlighting essential information, and reinforcing key concepts. Moreover, they played a crucial role as tools to mediate dialogue among the different actors involved in the process.
The designed leaflets narrate a story as they are unfolded, ending with a poster suitable for display on community walls (see pictures below).
Prevent and transform to live in peace
Leaflet number one unfolding process.
Initial cover view
Unfolded one time
Unfolded two times
Final unfolded view
Peace building through collective resilience
Leaflet number two unfolding process.
Initial cover view
Unfolded one time
Unfolded two times
Final unfolded view
Impact
These materials were distributed during on-site workshops and, more than passive handouts, they became catalysts for active engagement within the communities. Not only were they warmly received but actively used by the stakeholders, playing an important role in facilitating dialogue and understanding. By serving as tangible tools for communication and empowerment, the leaflets transcended the boundaries of traditional information dissemination, leaving a lasting impact on the communities involved who could see themselves represented in the depicted stories.
Credits
This project was commissioned by Alliance for Peace (APAZ).
