Chemnitz University
Graphic Novel

For Chemnitz University of Technology, we illustrated Escape the Cave - a hybrid non-fiction book that combines scientific insights into excessive media use with a graphic novel. The book is aimed at parents, adolescents, and professionals looking for a sensitive entry point into topics such as screen time, digital withdrawal, and media addiction.

Our task was to develop the entire visual language - one that makes psychological processes visible without dramatizing them, and that brings scientific content within reach without flattening it.

Visual identitity & imagery

At the heart of the book is the metaphor of the cave: as a physical retreat of an adolescent in front of his screens, as the inner space of an overwhelmed father's worries, and as the emotional void that grows between them. The motif runs through the book as a continuous thread, giving form to the invisible states of the characters.

The illustrations deepen the everyday scenes - arguments, withdrawal, tentative reconciliation - and bring their emotional subtext to the surface. A deliberate color dramaturgy supports the reader's orientation: warm, connected islands set against cool, dense black surfaces. The style is intentionally reduced but expressive, allowing the characters to remain approachable and vulnerable.

Bridging story & science

Escape the Cave moves between graphic-novel narrative and academic knowledge modules with info boxes. The illustrations create the visual frame for these shifts: they mark transitions, emphasize key moments, and help anchor even the scientific passages in the reader's memory.