Illustration
Visuals that Draw Audiences into the Story
I’ve spent the last 15 years working with orchestras to create bespoke illustrations for family and children’s concerts. Whether it’s perennial favorite Peter & the Wolf or a brand new composition, the illustrations help audiences connect with the story, learn about musical concepts, and develop rich memories about the experience. They are also a great way to support neurodiverse audiences into an immersive musical experience. It’s always fun to see the ways these illustrations can help enhance the joy and wonder of live music.
I create both full story illustrations (with backgrounds) and unique visual assets that can supplement a slideshow with words, or be used in marketing materials.
“Becky has brought many concerts for children to life, creating illustrations that enhance storytelling and enrich the overall concert experience for young audiences from infancy through age 12. Becky approaches every project and every person with thoughtfulness, respect, generosity, and tremendous creativity.
— Laura Reynolds, VP of Impact & Innovation, San Diego Symphony
SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY
Space Junk
For this project I collaborated with composer Ivan Trevino and the education team at San Diego Symphony to create visuals for the world premiere of “Space Junk.” This delightful piece by Trevino tells the story of a little star who turns the junk surrounding her into beautiful creations. In the planning process Trevino described his piece as “uplifting feel, buoyant, bubbly“ and he also specified that even though it was about junk, he wanted to keep everything bright and colorful.
I applied a simple color scheme to the different stars, which ended up matching the color scheme of the shirts worn by the main performers. In the visuals I toned down the brightness for the part of the story when the little star was sad and covered with trash, and then brought the brightness back up for when she starts to spin the space junk into “cool clothes, bright jewelry, and even musical instruments.” We kept the visuals simple so that they didn’t conflict with the action of performers on stage, but instead added to the story-telling process.
For the pre-concert craft, we invited the concert-goers to join in the process of “making something from nothing” by making a craft crown and decorating it with all the leftover craft supplies from the previous year. It was so much fun to be a part of the creative process for a beautiful piece of music about the creative process.
SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY
Symphony Kids Branding & Concert Illustrations
In 2024, San Diego Symphony rebooted their Symphony Kids Concert series aimed at preschool aged kids. The goal was to make this entire series neuro-inclusive and sensory friendly. With that in mind, I worked to make the illustrations and visual assets simple and clear, with bold outlines and a specific color scheme connected to each instrument family. After creating the visual style and feel, I created graphics that were used across their marketing materials, from the website, concert brochures, and social media posts.
To support neuro-inclusivity, we created a “social story” in the same visual style — a friendly one-page print out to help kids anticipate what the concert experience will be like. For each concert, I also create story images for the concert slideshow based on the stories and themes of the music.
PHILHARMONIA NORTHWEST
Concert Season Look & Feel
I created the look and feel for the marketing materials for Philharmonia Northwest’s 50th season (2025-2026). I worked with their team on the feel and story of each concert. The first concert, “Inspired by Love,” included a piece that was based on love letters written by Georgia O’Keefe to her husband. The oversized poppies in this illustration reference O’Keefe’s fascination with poppies, while the red color scheme with flames connected to the piece titled “Turbulent Flames.”
For each concert, I created a central illustration to be used for their marketing postcard, and then adjusted that image for different web standards (Web Banner, Instagram…), and separated out the different assets (background, separate images, title text) so that their marketing team could use those in the concert program, slideshows, and for anything other concert related materials.
Explore more Illustrations
Check out my portfolio to see more illustrations! I’ve been illustrating for orchestras for fifteen years, so there’s a lot to see. It’s a joy to collaborate with the different teams on what style and visual story will help the audience connect with the music.