ADB Youth for Asia is a program managed by Asian Development Bank’s NGO and Civil Society Center to mainstream youth participation in ADB operations as it believes that empowered youth are innovative and effective development.

Recently, I’m working at ADB Headquarters in Manila and I love the way how ADB Youth For Asia connect ADB projects with young people and engage youth in taking actions on the ground with local governments. So I took some time and did some digital painting infographics for some projects. These are going to be presented at 5th Asian Youth Forum together with with the 50th ADB Annual Meeting in Japan.

Thanks to my teammates for giving me the freedom to design based on my style and imagination, I was asking them “is it too childish for ADB?” They said “No, we love the way how you draw to present youth. ” And they know that I’m an artist, not a designer.

It’s my first time to learn how to use a tablet to do digital painting, and when I read the documents they gave to me, I was trying to visualize everything in my mind then draw them on the tablet, it’s quite fun like a game.

2 projects that I felt strong heartbeat when I did the painting, 1st,  Youth and the Coral Triangle Initiatives, 2nd, Youth in Fragile and Conflict-affected Situations in the Pacific. I didn’t know too much about these projects before I did the design, it was quite interesting to download related materials to learn about them then do the paintings, for example,  this article is quite simple about 12  things to know about Fragile States in the Pacific and here you can  read Mapping Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations in Asia and the Pacific: The ADB Experience

After these design, 2 more dreams in my bucket list:

1, go to some FCAS countries and do some impact showcasing projects through art 🙂

2, choose some favorite projects from different organizations and do painting infographic design based on my style, and looking for the ways for impact showcasing through art.

Mowen Li
2017.4.25. Philippines.