For the Wellington zoo poster, I wanted to show the colourful
and quirky nature of the city. I also wanted to incorporate elements of the
city itself; from the houses in the hills, to the cable car, to the strong
almost car-speed winds that gust through the city.
As for the Wellington zoo itself, I was really impressed by
their dedication to their animals’ welfare and their emphasis on environmental
conservation. What I liked most however, was “The Nest”. I really liked that
they allowed people behind the scenes to show them the delicate veterinary
operations, it really opened my eyes to how much work and care they put into
the animals.
In order to show the vast variety of animals the Wellington
zoo has, I decided to pick approximately one animal from each continent. I
ended up with tigers, sun bears and red pandas representing Asia; giraffes and
chimpanzees from Africa; otters from North America; spider monkeys from South
America, and kune kune pigs and kiwis for New Zealand – making a total of nine
animals. I really wanted the animals to stand out, so I textured them with
hatch marks that matched their natural hair growth patterns.
For the final composition, I decided to incorporate The Nest,
and the windiness of Wellington into my final poster design. To show the
windiness, I had my character’s hair blowing in the wind, and a couple of
leaves gusting through. I placed The Nest in the background in the upper left
hand corner, as a little nod to work they do every day in the background. The
animals (especially the red panda) are clustered around the human characters, to
show the zoo’s animal interaction program.
