01 CLIMATE ACTION ZINE AND POSTER

This project was an extension of my zine and poster about coral bleaching from last semester. This involved modifying the illustrations for the zine and poster.

Extending my zine from last semester, I decided to tell a story of the literal (rather than metaphorical) process of coral bleaching from the perspective of a clownfish. Through digital illustrations and the fading of colour, I wanted to explore the idea of "fading away" to demonstrate that sea creatures and coral have an interdependent relationship when "fading away" towards death. Thus, raising awareness of the consequences of coral bleaching. For my poster, I decided to add animated elements. This included making the fish move, text fading in and out, and mapping coral bleaching throughout the years. Furthermore, making the poster engaging in a short Youtube video.

PROCESS

Process of illustrating zine

This involved me sketching, lining, colouring, and shading my illustrations of the zine to explore a clownfish's experience with coral bleaching.

Initial pages 6 and 7

Initially, I was going to use single pages of the transition of the coral going from purple to white instead of a double-page spread. After receiving feedback from my peers, I changed it to a two-page spread, easily displaying this transition as presented above in the outcome.

Thumbnail sketches

Process of poster

I felt the thinner stroke weight around "SAVE ME" was quite effective as, the thicker stroke was too bold. The drop shadow was effective because it added depth to the text.

Process of animating poster

I experimented with paths allowing the clownfish to move across the canvas slowly. I also played with mapping coral bleaching, mainly presenting the transition from 2016 to 2020. These are the years that suffered severe coral bleaching. To do this, I repeatedly changed the text's opacity and the mapping from 100% to 50%.

Process of reworking poster

I decided to rework my poster design as I felt it was too "colourful" for coral bleaching. Regarding the coral illustrations, I chose the second illustration as it was simpler and was close to the notion of coral bleaching. Whereas, the first illustration was too detailed. For the clownfish pixel art illustrations, I chose the alive fish to position the viewer to make their decisions to prevent further coral bleaching. When designing the poster, the idea was to create it similarly to pixel art video games. I bolded the text with a yellow and red outline so audiences immediately see the headline and be alerted about the coral bleaching issue

Reworking poster animation

I decided that the rectangle, coral, and fish would disappear and reappear simultaneously, making the fish move up and down, emulating characters in a video game. To make the animated poster enjoyable, I make a typewriter animation for the text ‘DON’T BLEACH ME.’ I applied the same disappear and reappear text for the “SAVE ME!” to keep the audience’s attention to raise awareness of coral bleaching.

EXPERIMENTATION

I experimented with pixel art for the first time as I initially wanted to raise awareness about coral bleaching through pixel art. However, I realised that the quality of the pixel art would not be of high resolution and that making pixel art is time-consuming and prolonged.

PREVIOUS ZINE FROM LAST SEMESTER

VISUAL RESEARCH