For this year’s New Year holiday greeting card, I had the pleasure of creating a custom illustrated cartoon for Daniel Freund and his team at the Group of the Greens / European Free Alliance. From the very first contact, the collaboration was refreshingly nice and colloquial — the kind of exchange every illustrator hopes for.
The briefing was clear, the instructions precise, and the feedback rounds fast and constructive. There was plenty of room for humor and storytelling, which made it possible to develop a strong visual narrative instead of just a decorative image. And yes — the illustration was made by a human, not AI generated 😉
The cartoon, titled “Suspiciously Festive,” shows Daniel in full investigator mode, examining a set of rather questionable holiday presents. Each gift subtly represents a familiar culprit — Philip Morris, Nestlé, and Qatar Airways — visualizing the real political fights Daniel and his team have taken on over the past year against corrupt corporate influence.
Most importantly for me as an illustrator, this project mattered. Working for a good cause — fighting corruption and pushing for transparency in European politics — gave the illustration real weight beyond aesthetics. It’s exactly where illustration, visualisation, and graphic design can support meaningful political business and communication.
You can learn more about Daniel Freund’s work here:
https://danielfreund.eu/?lang=en
I started with a quick layout sketch, explaining how I would translate the briefing:
The tags on the presents indicate the suspicious nature of the boxes. Company names:
Philip Morris
TikTok
Agrofert
bwin
Qatar Airways
Nestlé
- I would put the tree as a character in the seats behind
- I would not put a christmas hat on Daniels head, to make his character more easy to recognize, instead put a sleeping santa in the background.
- I would add other christmas characters in the background: green elves underneath the european flag, rudolf the red nosed reindeer.
- I would make a selection of brands as mentioned above.
I proposed two different styles of inikng and shading
A big thank you to Daniel and his team for trusting me with this exciting project!
