How much time do you spend on your phone? Glancing around, if you see children (or if you have children), how often are they looking at the flat screens in their hands? For this project, I created an editorial illustration for a New York Times article about the trend of Silicon Valley workers limiting screen time for their children. As author Nellie Bowles writes in "A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley," these parents are just now beginning to see how addictive these devices are for their children.

In my illustration, I emphasize the addictive and alluring nature of these devices through the message "PLAY WITH ME" embedded in red notification bubbles. To highlight how pervasive these devices have become for children, I used cut paper to evoke an innocent atmosphere.

I landed on the message of "PLAY WITH ME" early on; it hit the balance of sinister and playful that I wanted for this illustration. I experimented with different modes of visualization, like crumpled letters, or Japanese tissue paper. 

While the explorations I had before filled the whole space of the image with apps, I decided to place the apps on a cut paper phone in this iteration to give greater context. From this iteration, I realized that I would have to play with the orientation of the phone as well, as the message "PLAY WITH ME" would get lost at this scale, especially when viewed on a mobile interface. I also resolved to experiment with the background and lighting; the black in the background was neutral, but it didn't add much to the illustration.