felt figures by martin smatana illustrate 10 good news of 2022

Martin Smatana’s ‘A Year of Good News’ NARRATES happy stories

Illustrator and animation director Martin Smatana creates a series of sewn compositions narrating some good news of 2022. The Prague-based artist picks one good news story from the newspaper every week and produces an artwork responding to it. Sustainable design methods of recycling and upcycling define the creative’s work since the embroidered art pieces are made out of old clothes and discarded textiles. The illustrated positive stories reinforce the belief that even in difficult times people can make good things happen even with the tiniest, most inconspicuous gestures making our world a better place.

an old man in Australia knitted woolen jumpers for penguins threatened by an oil leak to stop them from swallowing the toxic oil while cleaning themselves | all images courtesy of Martin Smatana

discarded fabrics compose positive illustrations and characters

Through his illustrated book ‘A Year of Good News’, the artist shows 52 illustrated good news stories which happened in the world during this difficult year of 2022. Ten of the positive and heart-warming stories are shared below. The hand-crafted illustrations narrate happy news stories through sewn fabric characters and small animal figures. The delicate artworks are made out of upcycled clothes and discarded textiles forming colorful scenes.

the director of a zoo in New South Wales, Australia, brought home several red pandas saving them from a blazing bush-fire

as flights from Italy were canceled due to the pandemic, a 10yo boy decided to walk with his father to visit his grandma in London. After 93 days and 2.800 kilometers, the boy could hug his grandma

a garbage collector in Bogotá, Colombia, has collected over 25,000 books people had thrown out and this year he opened a public library for poor children on the ground floor of his house

a father who wanted to spend Christmas with his daughter bought tickets for all six flights she worked as a flight attendant so they could be together on the 24th and 25th of December

when students in Bristol learned that their school’s caretaker hadn’t visited his relatives in his native Jamaica for four years, they collected money for his air ticket

when the 11-day war between Israel and Palestine ended, an Israeli kindergarten teacher donated a kidney to a three-year-old boy from the Gaza Strip

brazilian skydiver Luigi Cani released 100 million seeds from 28 native trees while leaping from a plane over a deforested area of the Amazon rainforest

a dog named Patron helped Ukrainian emergency services find 200 unexploded bombs. President Zelenskyy awarded Patron the Order of Courage

a hiker who was injured while climbing in Croatia’s mountains was saved from freezing to death by his dog who lay on top of him, keeping him warm for 13 hours until they were reached by rescuers

‘A Year of Good News’ shows 52 illustrated good news stories that happened during 2022

project info:

name: A Year of Good News
designer: Martin Smatana

US book distribution: unionsquareandco.com

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: christina vergopoulou | designboom