Ghett'UP

Client

Ghett'UP

Year

2025

Editorial illustration for a research report on police surveillance and identity in France's working-class neighborhoods.

Overview

Ghett'Up — a French association advocating for youth from working-class neighborhoods — commissioned a series of 14 original illustrations for their research report "Known by the Police," an in-depth study on surveillance systems and their impact on the identity construction of young residents. The report spans three chapters: a historical overview of surveillance practices, a series of personal testimonies, and a set of community recommendations. My role was to visually anchor the research across all three dimensions — giving it presence, humanity, and accessibility.

Client

Ghett'UP

Industry

Social Justice

Service

Illustration

Character Design

Storyboarding

Duration

14 months

The Challenge

The subject matter was both politically charged and deeply human. The report documents systems of surveillance (CCTV, algorithmic monitoring, institutional scrutiny, and social control) as experienced daily by young people who are Black or Arab in France. The challenge was twofold: translating dense sociological data into striking visuals without reducing lived experiences to mere statistics, and speaking directly to the report's primary audience — the young residents themselves — in a visual language that felt familiar and resonant rather than clinical or distant

The Solution

I drew various illustrations serving the report's different registers with my manga style: narrative full-page spreads mapping the geography of surveillance, intimate portrait sketches humanizing anonymous testimonies, and bold data visuals giving raw statistics an embodied, human weight.

The Result

The final deliverable was a cohesive set of 14 illustrations — spanning double-page spreads, character portraits, timeline compositions, and typographic data visuals — integrated throughout the published report. The work helped transform a rigorous piece of sociological research into a document that its primary readers could not only engage with intellectually, but feel seen by.