Hi!
Have you had another box of puppies dumped at your gate that you now need to find homes for?
Is it time to vaccinate the dogs and stock up on medication, but you’re desperately short on donations?
Are you doing an amazing job running a home shelter (you’re awesome, you know that, right?) and blogging about it, but the algorithms just won’t let you reach a wider audience?
I’d like to offer you my help, because the first thing that catches social media users' attention is an image!
My name is Ira Klimenko. I’m an illustrator and (importantly) an animal shelter volunteer with extensive experience and (even more importantly) I really love dogs. I’ve created illustrations for my team’s social media and various merchandise that we gave away and sold at events.
My experience as someone who understands how charity projects and the systems surrounding them are working gives me a lot of insight. I know what it feels like to walk into a shelter for the first time and be greeted by row after row of occupied kennels and the constant sound of barking. I know how heartbreaking it is to do everything in your power to take a shelter dog from one vet to another, only to know that all that awaits them is an isolation ward, not a warm blanket on the sofa. I know how wonderful it feels when the people who adopted puppies found at a construction site send you photos of them — all grown up and happy, wearing funny little winter overalls and holding their favorite toy in their mouths.
And I can convey these feelings through illustrations in a way that makes people who have never experienced them feel them too. So that people want to pause and think.
And then do something.
DOG HOLIDAY CALENDAR (СОБАЧИЙ КАЛЕНДАРЬ)
Problem: People are getting tired of the constant negativity on social media. And that’s understandable — that’s how the algorithms work. But we can’t just turn away from dogs in trouble, and we need other people’s help. How do we raise money when people scroll past sad stories without even looking?
Idea: Why not come up with some positive occasions for fundraising?
Solution: Invent fictional dog holidays and collect donations, for example… to celebrate Ball Day and Naughty Dog Day!I created a series of illustrations: simple enough that you don’t have to spend a long time looking at them to understand what they’re about, but eye-catching thanks to their poster-like style and funny visual. On a social media page, they would stand out among the photo posts and form a separate recurring feature. What holiday have they come up with today? What fun occasion can I use to send a small donation to the shelter?It’s also worth noting that this style would work really well for merchandise. You could create a series of stickers or postcards — get one with every recurring donation and collect the entire calendar of dog holidays!
LIFE WITH A DOG (ЖИЗНЬ С СОБАКОЙ)
Problem: Usually, the narrative around having a dog at home jumps from one extreme to another. Get a dog and you’ll have a best friend who will bring you nothing but unconditional love, the joy of being greeted every evening, and even your slippers! Get a dog and you’ll have to go out in the pouring rain and in the blizzard at six A.M., buy a new sofa to replace the one that’s been chewed up, and spend three months' worth of salary on vet bills (and dogs are stinky, too)! If you don’t have a dog, you don’t know what to expect. If you do have a dog, you feel like a terrible owner.
Idea: The truth, as usual, lies somewhere in between. And it’s important to tell the whole story.
Solution: A zine about dog owners who, despite everything, choose to share their lives with dogs — with paws in their faces, fur in their mouths, and walks through mud and swamps. Because the happiness they experience together is worth it.This is a series of illustrations about everyday life with dogs. About the need to go for walks in tall rubber boots. About waking up because you’ve been hit in the nose with a paw — someone needs to chase a ball in their sleep. About being exhausted, but having a fluffy paw there to support your head as it nods off from lack of sleep.For this series, I used photographs of dog owners I know as references. The visual style here is realistic. It’s important for me to show that these are real people, not fictional illustrations — that this is genuinely how they live day after day. I chose a limited palette of neutral colors. They’re not loud, but they’re not gloomy either. Calm, yet rather cheerful, because it’s moments like these that make up the everyday happiness of life with a dog.
DOG PARK (ПЁСОПАРК)
Problem: Despite growing tolerance towards dogs in public spaces, society as a whole accepts only a relatively small part of the dog community — primarily small dogs. And even the understanding of what can be considered a dog-free public space varies greatly. Dogs are unwelcome even in places where they need to be to meet their species-specific needs (and I’m not talking only about going to the toilet, but also other needs: movement, socializing with other dogs, and being in an enriched environment). We know the rules for dog owners: clean up after your dog, use muzzles and leashes, and stay off the grass. But for harmonious coexistence, it’s not only dog owners who need to learn how to behave — everyone sharing the same urban space with dogs does, too.
Idea: What if we started teaching the rules of this coexistence from an early age?
Solution: Turn it into a fun activity!This project is a series of illustrations for informational leaflets. On the back, there’s a list of simple rules: always ask the owner before interacting with a dog; be gentle if you’re allowed to pet and play with it; learn how dogs express displeasure and fear, and how they show happiness. On the front, there’s an illustration showing that dogs are an important part of the urban environment. But it’s also interactive — children can color in the dogs and draw them funny faces.
Contact me at
iraklim0202@gmail.com
tg @sobaki207
