Virtual Experiences
These case studies feature visual maps and interactive environments that guide audiences through virtual events and educational content, created in collaboration with Overflow Companies for mission-driven organizations.
Kansas Housing Advocacy Network
Client: Overflow Companies
Overview: I was commissioned by Overflow Companies to illustrate a “Story Map” for the Kansas Housing Advocacy Network (KHAN), a coalition working to educate the public on homelessness across the state. The map was created as a vertically scrolling visual experience for their website and virtual conference, blending storytelling with accessible resources.
Goals: The Story Map needed to teach the public five common questions about homelessness, one section at a time, moving from problem to solution. Each section was paired with interactive hotspots that triggered video explanations, downloadable PDFs, and other supporting resources, and the experience gave viewers a way to compare common misperceptions with reality.
My Role: Overflow provided a rough content outline and basic art direction. My task was to design a flowing illustration that:
Visually unified the five sections along a vertical “stream” motif
Reflected progression—from problem to solution—using color and tone.
Supported clearly marked interactive elements that the web team could link to additional content
I submitted the artwork across four rounds of revisions, responding to feedback from both Overflow and KHAN. A key moment came when the client asked for a symbolic progression in tone—starting with cooler, subdued colors at the top and transitioning into warmer, more hopeful colors at the bottom to represent a path forward.
Final Result: The final illustration, drawn in both English and Spanish, became the foundation of an interactive webpage built by Overflow's web team around clickable components, with iconography and visual cues that made each interactive element easy to find. KHAN also used the Story Map as a PDF during their live conference, so presenters could point to it alongside what was being discussed. It remains online as a resource people can return to.
Reflection: This was a uniquely collaborative and mission-driven project. Illustration is rarely planned around how people move through content, so designing for interactivity from the start added a layer of purpose and design thinking that I really enjoyed. It was also motivating to contribute to something with real public impact: making a complex issue more understandable and accessible through visual storytelling.
Ten Thousand Villages Global Festival
Client: Overflow Companies
Overview: In 2020, Ten Thousand Villages Overland Park celebrated 20 years as a locally operated fair trade retailer. When the pandemic cancelled their plans for an in-person celebration, the event shifted online—and Overflow Companies stepped in to help reimagine the experience. Along with video production and event support, they proposed an interactive “Story Map” that would carry the spirit of the festival into a digital space.
Creative Goals: The illustrated map I created became a centerpiece of the virtual event, serving as a visual guide to the featured artisan stories. Each section of the village illustration functioned as a clickable entry point—letting users launch embedded videos that introduced artisan partners and community members in Kansas City and around the world.
My Role: Working from a small set of initial visual assets and a loose content outline, I designed a stylized “global village” as the foundation for interaction. I expanded on the existing artwork to develop a cohesive scene—composed of handcrafted textures, layered architecture, and natural colors—reflecting the handmade aesthetic at the heart of Ten Thousand Villages’ mission.
As content and featured speakers evolved, I collaborated with Overflow to adapt the illustration across six working drafts. Elements were added, shifted, and refined, and I introduced darker-colored icons to represent interactive hotspots. These became key wayfinding elements, helping viewers intuitively navigate the map and discover stories from places like Haiti, Nepal, India, and Kansas City.
Design Highlights:
Style: Inspired by the textures and charm of printmaking, emphasizing a handmade feel.
Messaging: Wove in event language and brand elements, including the logline.
Interactivity: Final assets were handed off to Overflow’s web team, who built out the clickable interface—embedding video content at key points throughout the map.
Outcome: The story map helped tie together the many moving parts of the virtual festival— serving as both a celebration of Ten Thousand Villages' 20-year legacy and an accessible hub for global storytelling. It combined illustration, messaging, and interactivity to create an experience rooted in both joy and purpose.
Advent Health's Living in Vitality
Client: Overflow Companies
Overview:
To support the pivot to a fully virtual event in 2020, I illustrated a desktop-based interactive “program book” for Living in Vitality—a women’s health initiative sponsored by AdventHealth Shawnee Mission. The piece served as both a navigational tool during the live event and a persistent resource archive afterward. Once finalized, the illustration was handed off to Overflow’s web team, who integrated the interactivity.
Design Approach:
The final layout featured a top-down view of a cluttered desk, where each illustrated object functioned as a clickable link to a different resource, mirroring the experience of flipping through a printed event program. I created the image in raster format to take advantage of textured brushes and natural shading that wouldn’t have been possible with vector artwork. From the beginning, the illustration was designed with interactivity in mind.
Hovering over an element reveals a contextual label instead of displaying everything at once, which kept the composition clean and let viewers focus on one resource at a time. Color choices remained closely aligned with AdventHealth’s visual identity, while still adding warmth and depth through lighting and tactile detail. Visual elements were laid out to encourage playful discovery, which suited the tone of the event; for more instructional content, I mark interactive elements clearly.
Design Considerations:
Throughout the process, I incorporated client-requested details to make the piece both functional and visually rich. Branded materials like Kansas City Magazine and the celebrity speaker’s book, breakout session icons, and various common items like sticky notes and earbuds were integrated into the composition. Feedback led to several rounds of revision, including increasing the size of the program book to make it the clear focal point, and swapping out props—like replacing a stapler with a cell phone—to better represent the event’s content.
While most of the illustration leaned into a handmade aesthetic, branding requirements called for corporate fonts in certain places, such as on the copy of the program book. I used handwritten elements selectively to preserve a feeling of spontaneity while still respecting brand guidelines. The final composition was optimized for virtual attendees of the event, a desktop-first experience.
Impact:
The illustration functioned as a central hub during the live event, helping attendees navigate between breakout sessions, keynote videos, and other health-related resources. After the event concluded, the Story Map remained online as a curated archive of tools and recorded content for return visits. Today, it still lives on Overflow’s website as a lasting snapshot of the 2020 LIV event and its broader message of women’s wellness.