The World Majlis: The Essays series from Expo 2020 Dubai explores big ideas from global thought leaders; in 2020, I designed the cover for Book 3: Technology, which features reflections and thoughts from celebrated thinkers, elaborating on key issues in tech and their future implications.
I also designed a lead + spot illustrations for one of the essays - The Liquid City, by Keiitchi Matsuda.
The cover used a die-cut top layer to reveal parts of the illustration beneath, so I designed both in tandem. In these early sketches, I aimed to balance optimism and awe for the unknown future, connecting swirling tech motifs to human elements.
After finalizing the sketch concept and exploring various die-cut options, we chose a rounded diamond shape—evoking the form of a microchip.
The final illustration takes a bold, human-centered approach, showing people actively shaping the technology around them. Small nodes thread through the composition to add movement and reinforce the microchip shape when the cover is closed.
Keiichi Matsuda is a designer and filmmaker known for envisioning “hyper reality”—a world saturated with tech, ads, alerts, and digital noise. His essay strikes a surprisingly neutral tone, so my sketches aimed to capture that calm indifference amid the chaos.
Similarly, I wanted the spots to explore the viewer’s relationship with technology and the blurred line between reality and fiction that Matsuda reflects on. I used dramatic perspective, eye motifs, and dense, atmospheric scenes inspired by neo-noir films like Blade Runner.
The final art for these aims to strike a balance between harmony and chaos, with warm, vibrant colors meant to contrast the frenetic environments. These characters are ultimately surrounded by tech, but with some luck, also unbothered by it.
