The creator behind the Let's talk about home campaign image:

"Everyone has a unique mix of ingredients, you can check that in the image," Padmos said.

For the festival Let's talk about home, illustrator Steffie Padmos had created the striking campaign image that could be seen throughout the city in November.

Colorful, layered and full of symbolism, the image invites you to reflect on what home means to everyone. "The idea was to show that people carry a unique mix of ingredients from their ancestors and their own history. In the image you check people on the street, each with their own package. For everyone, that is unique again, and everyone can recognize themselves in it," Steffie says. She calls it a "hodgepodge of influences that shape you as a person."

Steffie gets a lot of inspiration from nature, (animation) films and other design disciplines. Her background is in scientific illustration, where she learned to observe accurately and make complex information accessible. Nowadays, she works in a more stylized way. She explains that she is always looking for balance and tension in her work: "I try to create tension by placing elements slightly differently than you expect," making the image both dynamic and inviting.

"Coming home for me is the place I consciously chose as an adult," says Steffie. "When I returned from the Randstad to the south, I really felt that in the nature and greenery around me. That gives me a sense of home." As part of this year's Let's talk about home festival, she was looking forward to the performance Meer dan Bauxiet. "That one appeals to me because it shows the stories of the third generation of Dutch Indians in the Netherlands. My mother was born in Indonesia, my father in Curaçao, both from Dutch parents, and it's interesting to check what you take away from that history," she says.
Read more about the festival here.

The festival Let's talk about home uses this image to make visible the diversity of home and the stories of its visitors. Steffie's layered and colorful design challenges, excites and connects, just like the festival itself. Discover more of Steffie's illustrations and projects on her website.