Just like any other Sociology Bachelor student at UZH, Szonja is busy between readings, homework, papers and assignments. But over the last few months, she has been turning in many sketches, cartoons, reworked cartoons and reworked sketches during the many (many) meetings of our Marketing Team, which she also leads. These cartoons are meant for our poster for the upcoming Sustainability Week Zurich.

After all this tireless work, the main poster is finally complete! We took the chance to ask Szonja to take us through the poster for 2026 and the whole process behind it.

Why do we have cartoons on our poster? 

Szonja: In our Marketing Team discussions last semester, we came up with a new concept for our main poster: to create a Wimmelbild, something like Wo ist Walter / Where is Waldo, where there are many scenes with people doing different things. In our poster, they are sharing different things: clothes, books, a high-five, a nice moment, a game and just simple things that bring us joy.

We thought it would be the perfect way to describe our main theme "Sharing the Future". This is the first time ever that the main poster has a concept like this. Zoé (Kugler), who is designing the poster suggested the background for all this: the map of Zurich. We thought it was perfect. 

What is the idea behind making cartoons like this?

Szonja: The main theme for the Week is "Sharing the Future". We decided this in October in our retreat in Fällanden during the Sustainability Weekend Retreat which takes place every year in autumn. And I think cartoons are an easy way of showing people being together and sharing something together. In the future, I really hope that there are different people who look different and have various interests, which is why I tried to show diversity, and that they don’t need to have the same skin colour, hair colour or clothes or like the same things. And there is more:

The cartoon characters are all are sharing the future with the person looking at the poster. Through this poster, we are imagining a future full of possibilities, where people are sharing moments together and having fun. This is why most of the characters look very happy and lively and are in interaction with each other.

And for people interested in the technicalities of it: I drew all the sketches first on OneNote, sometimes even with the finger. Then I made the cartoons on Adobe Fresco.

Have you been making cartoons for a long time?

Szonja: No, not really! Funny how you thought of it like that. 

I was panicking at first after I took it up. So I downloaded pictures of actual humans from the internet and tried to draw cartoon characters based on them, but it was so difficult. I could not get the perspective right. At some point, I realised, you know what, I don't need to do it this way. Then I deleted all the pictures of humans and started drawing the way I wanted to.

I had a major revelation: this is a cartoon and this does not have to be realistic. Then I thought maybe I could give them different shapes, one could be more of a triangle, another round, and then I duplicated one of them so they can have the same body and can work as brother and sister. I have been drawing for many years, but not just cartoons specifically and not in this style, so I just made these as best as I could. I feel like I don't have a style, but I don't think that this is a bad thing.

What was your favourite part of making the cartoons?

Szonja: Obviously drawing. I really like drawing!

I really like creating all these different people. I suddenly start thinking many thoughts when I draw. Ahh, which hair colour do they have? What kind of person is this? Would they wear these kinds of shoes!? I also wanted to give them a personality a bit, but also not too much because that would also mean much more time and not finishing them this year.

My favourite part is creating a few non-existent people who are really colourful. Imagining that they are all of us in the future, that would be so nice! That is a future I would like to see. 

What were the difficult parts?

Szonja: As I said, I really love drawing. But it was also stressful because it felt like it would never end, like my tasks would never end. It was a lot next to work and school. As soon as I got something done, I felt like I needed to continue right away with the next.  Now when I look at the poster, I see 8 different cartoons, but when I made them, it felt like I made hundreds of them. But overall, this was something I was very happy to do, and every time I was doing the drawing, it really brought me a lot of happiness, seeing this new world I was creating. 

What are your favourite cartoons in here?

Szonja: Hmn, hard to choose. But I really like the one with the birds and the birdhouse. I really like the birds the most to be honest. I think they are really pretty. I really like the more girl-ey looking person. Speaking of: I did not always give a definite gender to these people. Sometimes in one person, I used more stereotypically masculine or feminine features, but in reality, I don’t really know who has which gender. So, the more relatively feminine looking person in this cartoon has a kind and loving expression, which I think is really nice.

AND there is also an easter egg hidden in the cloth-swapping cartoon. The person wearing a scarf. I just sewed a hat a few weeks ago which has the same exact pattern on it as this scarf. Do you know why? Because it is the pattern on the skin of Na'vi in Avatar!! I am really a major fan of Avatar, this is why I went to watch the third part 6 times at the cinema. And I really loved to do that. I was very sneaky with this one. Maybe some Avatar fans already spotted it!

What about the cartoons which did not make it?

Szonja: It was hard for me because I get emotionally attached to my drawings. If I create something, it always happens. It is something I need to learn to manage, because it is important. I wish to work in this field later, being creative and so on, so I need to learn to accept criticism. 

Even though I love making them and put a lot of thought into it, sometimes it is not the most fitting due to different reasons. One example is the cartoon below with the two high-five'ing. Here the cartoon may not be so obvious or clear to everyone as to what people are doing. But my Marketing Team is really lovely, and even though we either voted something in or out, they always appreciated all the work I put in and we discussed everything together.

The cartoon below is the one where people are excited looking at the Hollywood sign, but here it is Future instead. This is great but does not fit into our Wimmelbild overlay with the distance and perspective.

I still had a lot of fun making them, they are not a waste, because now they exist and I might be able to use them later in life for a different purpose. I accept that for now, they are not all going to make it to the final poster because they do not fit perfectly. But I know that they have some purpose in my life. 

Any takeaway message to our readers?

Szonja: Yes, I have one.

"Start creating, stop generating!"

I think some people already understand what this means. Nowadays, using AI to generate images is not so difficult. But nothing really replaces creating something on your own. There is a very different kind of joy and a lot more power when you create something yourself. That would be my takeaway message. 

Image credits: Szonja Kéri
Blog curation: Ashoka Vardhan Manchala

© Nachhaltigkeitswoche Zürich / Sustainability Week Zurich

The 14th Sustainability Week Zurich (Nachhaltigkeitswoche Zürich) will take place 13-17 April 2026. This is a week full of 60+ student-organised events. They are free and open to everyone to attend. You can also volunteer!

This Week happens across 5 universities and their multiple campuses. This includes UZH, ETH, ZHAW, PHZH and ZHdK. Stay updated by following us on instagram, LinkedIn, joining our Whatsapp community. We also have a monthly newsletter.