HBL IMPACT & SUSTAINABLITY REPORT

Narrative Illustrations

Services

Illustration

Client

Habib Bank Limited

Art Director

Halima Saadia

Year

2025

Photographer

Taseer Beyg

Info

We were commissioned to create four narrative illustrations for HBL’s Impact & Sustainability Report.

Each section is introduced by reflections from His Highness Prince Shah Rahim Al Hussaini Aga Khan, creating a dialogue between visual storytelling and ideas of sustainability, governance and collective futures.

The project began with a single story inspired by one of the real bank customers where infrastructure, finance, and policy are experienced through everyday life. This expanded into a series of interconnected visual landscapes, each holding multiple narratives within one composition.

See live project

Overview

Visual Approach:

The client required soft organic gradients, handcrafted textures, and dissolving forms to express how systems are interconnected rather than separate.

Built in vector, each composition also functions as a modular system, allowing elements to be reused throughout the report.

Working within HBL’s palette of greens, corals, and deep blues, the colors are softened to create a more human and atmospheric tone.

The client required soft organic gradients, handcrafted textures, and dissolving forms to express how systems are interconnected rather than separate.

Built in vector, each composition also functions as a modular system, allowing elements to be reused throughout the report.

Working within HBL’s palette of greens, corals, and deep blues, the colors are softened to create a more human and atmospheric tone.

sections:

1.⁠ ⁠Organization

An ecosystem of collaboration connecting governance, microfinance, agriculture, and infrastructure.

2.⁠ ⁠Economy

Centered on women’s financial inclusion, showing how access to banking creates ripple effects across communities.

3.⁠ ⁠Environment

Built around the metaphor of listening to nature; combining renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and policy shifts.

4.⁠ ⁠Society

Focused on care within infrastructure: from inclusive banking and healthcare to culture and community wellbeing.

1.⁠ ⁠Organization

An ecosystem of collaboration connecting governance, microfinance, agriculture, and infrastructure.

2.⁠ ⁠Economy

Centered on women’s financial inclusion, showing how access to banking creates ripple effects across communities.

3.⁠ ⁠Environment

Built around the metaphor of listening to nature; combining renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and policy shifts.

4.⁠ ⁠Society

Focused on care within infrastructure: from inclusive banking and healthcare to culture and community wellbeing.

Process:

The illustrations were developed through an iterative process of research, visual testing, and compositional refinement.

We began by studying the report to understand how its programs and narratives could be translated into visual form, followed by rough sketches to explore how multiple stories could coexist within a single frame.

These were then developed into vector compositions, allowing flexibility in adjusting scale, hierarchy, and balance.

Through feedback from the AD, the focus was on maintaining clarity within complexity, ensuring each element remained legible while contributing to the visual metaphor.

The final illustrations were refined through color, gradients, and texture, and prepared both as complete landscapes and modular elements reused throughout the report.

The illustrations were developed through an iterative process of research, visual testing, and compositional refinement.

These were then developed into vector compositions, allowing flexibility in adjusting scale, hierarchy, and balance.

Through feedback from the AD, the focus was on maintaining clarity within complexity, ensuring each element remained legible while contributing to the visual metaphor.

The final illustrations were refined through color, gradients, and texture, and prepared both as complete landscapes and modular elements reused throughout the report.