Wellington Zoo: a celebration of the diversity of species

Rationale

I decided to develop a poster that would inspire and encourage people of all ages to visit New Zealand’s first Zoo, Wellington Zoo. The zoos philosophy is based on the belief that we must achieve sustainable co-existence between humans and animals. I chose to exhibit this by illustrating the animals of the zoo interacting and playing alongside a young couple, adventuring through one of Wellington Zoos unique overnight tours. I aimed to create a sense of magic and wonder through my surreal moon and bright colour palette; I feel this embodies the idea of an ideal starry night.

My chosen visual style is heavily influenced by artists Ben Newman and Greg Abbott. When designing my characters, I went through a process of drawing animals from observation, then simplifying their forms resulting in a very soft shaped and simplified style. I followed the same process for the plants, after visiting the botanical gardens and researching plants native to the Wellington region. 

Overall, I feel my poster conveys all senses of wonder, fun and excitement and would encourage anyone to go and visit Wellington Zoo for an exciting overnight adventure.        

Workbook

Final Poster

Final Development

Composition Development 

Composition Development

Character Developments

Wellington Native Plants

Composition Development

Character Concepts

Moodboard & Artist Models

Initial Concepts

Rationale

Final Illustrations

Print Preparation

As the illustrations are for a childrens reading book, I had to take careful consideration into center folds and page edges. Throughout the assignment, I have made sure not to put important content over the center fold and now during print preparations I am making sure to leave enough room between the page edge and text.

Final Development - Texture

After receiving feedback I decided to experiment with textures, in particular old paper textures.

Final Development - Print Test

After conducting print tests, I decided that my compositions were better suited squared rather than a4 portrait.

Final Development - Composition

 Experimentation with the fourth composition, as I feel it is the least successful. I decided to go with the third option displayed, moving the content upward to allow room for the text to be shifted underneath, overall providing nice asymmetry and balance.

Final Development - Adding Text

I have started experimenting with fonts and text for the compositions, to see if they look well in the positions initially drafted. I chose the font Rustler as I feel it suits my overall visual style. I also created a front cover page, to enhance the overall story told.

Laika Page

I decided to add an extra fun facts optional page at the end of the story, explaining Laika and her relevance to space travel.

Composition Development

After receiving feedback from lecturers and other peers I made some changes to my compositions.

For this composition, I altered the dogs face so he would look at the audience. The previous angle I had him facing is repeated quite a bit in the story already, so this provides some variety.

I played around with the colours of the magnifying glass, to avoid it clashing with the moon. I also made the moon smaller, to help differentiate it a bit better.

I added motion lines to the tennis ball, to help provide a better understanding of the difference in gravity as stated by the text. I also changed the moon, replacing the rocks with craters so it looked more identifiable as a moon.

For this composition, I just moved the rocket and trail so they would not sit directly inline with the border, if the composition is squared.

Composition Development

Character Sheet and Style Experimentation

Character and Style sheet consisting of Laika, the Sputnik 2 (her space ship) the Moon and Earth.

Composition Development - Text and Colour

Furthered onto experimentation of colour palette through mock ups.

Developed thumbnails, in particular focusing on flow throughout composition and text reinforcing story told.

Composition Development

Character Developments - Colour Concepts