One-line summary: An editorial poster series translating an oral village folklore about the Pandawa brothers into symbolic, illustrated visual storytelling.

This project is a three-part poster series that visually narrates a piece of folklore about the Pandawa brothers, passed down orally in my village. Rather than illustrating literal scenes, I focused on symbolic figures — a golden deer, a black swan, and a lotus flower — each carrying a specific meaning from the story. The goal was to give an oral tradition a visual identity that feels mystical, cohesive, and easy to read at a glance, while still respecting the depth of the original story.

Editorial Designer & Illustrator — I handled concept development, visual research, and all vector illustration in Adobe Illustrator, from initial sketches to final poster layouts.

This was a self-directed editorial design project: I set my own brief to take a piece of intangible cultural heritage (an oral folktale with no existing visual reference) and design a poster series that could stand on its own as a visual narrative — the kind of work that could sit in a gallery, a cultural publication, or a museum shop.

Research & interpretation: I broke the folklore down into its key symbolic moments and asked what single image could represent each one, rather than trying to illustrate the whole narrative at once.

Visual language: I built a consistent motif system — stars, vines, and lamps — to tie the three posters together and reinforce the story's mystical tone, alongside a warm, muted purple-and-gold palette.

Illustration: Each central figure (deer, swan, lotus) was built as flat, layered vector illustration in Adobe Illustrator, with textured backgrounds to add warmth and depth without competing with the main subject.

Editorial layout: Each poster pairs the illustration with a short explanatory text panel, so the series can function as a standalone visual piece or as an educational/storytelling tool.

Poster I — The Golden Deer (forest exile)

Poster II — The Black Swan (the riddle at the lake)

Poster III — The Golden Lotus (wisdom and reunion)

Series cover/title treatment

Adobe Illustrator · Vector Illustration · Editorial Design · Visual Storytelling · Color & Motif Systems