Artful, immersive storytelling for organisations working with communities across the globe.
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Stories grounded in dignity and respect, created with care and craftsmanship
Humanitarian organisations face a communications challenge.
Audiences are saturated with appeals and crisis coverage, while the people at the centre of these stories are reduced to statistics or a single image — seen briefly, then scrolled past.
Factual reporting may inform, but it rarely brings a reality close enough to be felt and understood. Countless stories go untold and are left unheard.
Crafted with care and craftsmanship, we create stories that slow people down. we combine research and impact reporting with artful, immersive design, rooted in the digital world we all inhabit, but never detached from the people and places it comes from.
Communities hold insight and lived expertise that conventional reporting rarely captures. To create connection and understanding with donors, partners, and the public, we need stories that show both impact and unresolved realities, and is respectful of a community's agency over how its story is told.
Research
We go beyond surface level reporting to creating deeper engagement with a topic, community, or region than a standard linear report or campaign page allows. The stories we create are grounded in qualitative ethnographic research as well as in artistic inquiry through (participatory) drawing and audio-visual reporting.
Content
We create multi-modal pieces combining written text with drawings, soundscapes, photography and video into one experience. We aim to create a story that is rooted in the specific context it comes from, using maps and other visual data to root the story in its geography.
Design
Building a unique online "container" to hold and tell that story. We open up new possibilities by creating non-linear pathways that let users choose how they move through the material and which perspective or topic they dive into.
Each piece is uniquely crafted
What we create
We seek synchronicity between form, content and functionality.
We never create the same thing twice.
01
Afghanistan Joint Response
Dutch Relief Alliance
Visit Afghan communities and discover in which ways they are part of the Dutch Relief Alliance’s Joint Response.
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02
The Backway
The Netherlands Red Cross and IFRC
Travel the route thousands take from Northern Africa and Europe back to the Gambia, and get to know the Red Cross service po
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03
Landschap tussen Frictie en Falen
VriendenLoterij Fonds
An exploration of moments of friction and failure as essential parts of a social art practice, through five case studies who receive funding of the VLF
How we work
We build immersive, informative, and artistic storytelling experiences that:
... are participatory — developed together with the organisations and communities involved, using creative methods such as participatory drawing, allowing people to become co-authors of their own story.
... go beyond surface-level reporting — creating deeper engagement with a topic, community, or region than a standard linear report or campaign page allows.
... are multimodal — combining written text with drawings, soundscapes, photography, video into one experience.
... are place-based — grounded in the specific context, time, and place a story comes from, using maps and other data to root the story in its geography.
The full arc
What we do
We are a small, tightly-knit core team that combines research, artistic practice, and technology.
Together, we cover the full arc: from the first conversation in the field to the final interactive piece someone encounters on their screen.
The team
Kyra Sacks
Kyra works at the intersection of art and anthropology, leading the project’s concept design, art direction and content development. She spends as much time listening as looking — immersing herself in a community’s world and translating what she learns into drawings, film, audio and narrative concepts that carry the essence of a story.
Her anthropological training allows her to understand complex dynamics and earn access responsibly, ensuring the final piece reflects the community’s lived reality. Kyra manages the project on both an artistic and content level.
Eveleen & Yannick
Yannick and Eveleen work in tandem to bring projects to life online, designing and building the interactive spaces that hold the stories at the heart of each production.
Working in close collaboration with Kyra, they treat the platform itself as part of the storytelling: every interaction, transition, and layout choice made as deliberately as the content it carries, so the experience feels as considered and intentional as the story itself.
Collaborators
Besides close collaboration with the organisation commissioning the Drawn-In Story, we bring (local) staff, researchers, translators, sound designers, and other specialists into the team, depending on the project.
This to make sure each story is told accurately, and with the right voices present.
A community’s agency over how the story is told
Through our participatory approach, we engage community members to express their experiences, needs, and interests. Their input, alongside that of other stakeholders, shapes the content and design process, as we integrate their stories and drawings into the final piece.
Drawing closer
add: Whyy drawing
In more vulnerable contexts, this allows us to include voices without exposing them — making participation more accessible, and consistent with safeguarding and consent requirements throughout the production.
“A wonderful way ofshowing the impact of our work. More importantly, it tells teh stories of the people and communities we work with, with respect and dignity. That is waht makes it so powerful.”
- Heleen van den Berg
Cordaid CEO
“Truly moving and beautiful. It becomes so tangible and adds so much emotion and layers—both literally and figuratively!”
- Natasha Erfanipour
Prospector
“The blue colour is very telling in these days when women are lashed in Afghanistan. Your beautiful work combined with strong strokes speaks louder than the texts. Wonderful work!”
- Younes Saramifar
Anthropologist
“The power of storytelling... (...) Here is a powerful story about the experience of refugees. Embrace the story and the beauty of the art-form. Listen to the voices
(it is not for the faint of heart).
- Aminata Cairo
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The design is yours. The CMS already exists; the frontend is built around it, in the shape you drew.
Your client edits inside that shape — adding pages, swapping images, rewriting sections — and the layout holds. Year three looks like launch week.