George McBean

Background

About George McBean

George McBean is a film animator and illustrator, born in Scotland in 1948. He retired as Head of UNICEF’s Graphic’s section dealing with Animation for Children’s Rights and continued working on occasional assignments in East Africa. After a 36 year association with the organisation he returned to Edinburgh in 2012 and most recently he has continued to talk and to develop ideas on the theme of illustration and animation for development. His research into Visual Literacy among rural populations in Nepal has been highlighted in the New Internationalist and was described in the book 'People Pictures and Power’, Bob Linney 1991 - Macmillan-Talc) as “the most important visual literacy study ever done”. His illustrations and comic books on themes of Health and Social Development have been produced in mass numbers in several countries. He was key to forming one of UNICEF's most successful partnerships with more than 100 animation studios worldwide (Including Disney, Pixar, Warner Bros, Dreamworks, Hanna Barbera, Cartoon Network etc see His designs and animated film productions have been distributed world-wide by the United Nations. He has given talks on his work at Stanford University, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and at the Animation Workshop in Viborg Denmark. http://georgemcbean.com Some references: George McBean, Norbert Kaggwa, John Bugembe, Eds. for Development. Afrolit Society. 69pp George McBean. Rethinking Visual Literacy: research in progress. Health Education Research - Theory and Practice Vol.3 no.4, 393-398 George McBean. Rethinking Visual Literacy. Helping pre-literates learn. UNICEF Nepal. 42pp