PROJECT: ‘WATERLANDS’ PODCAST IDENT
CLIENT: WILDFOWL & WETLANDS TRUST (WWT)

WATERLANDS is a podcast from WWT which launched in 2022, and is currently upto Series 3 - it’s all about the wonderful, sometimes surprising and often underappreciated watery places around us, and how they can help us with some of the biggest issues facing life on this planet.

Through personal stories and intriguing interviews, the podcast takes you on a journey around our incredible wetlands here in the UK - and reveals their power to shape our future for the better. 

Ready to dive in?…Listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

OBJECTIVE

To create a a bold and clear design for use as the podcast cover artwork, which communicates that it’s a celebration of a wonderful habitat and is worth listening to as an environmental/nature podcast.

It should be attractive and engaging for a potential audience who may not be that familiar with wetlands or WWT - typically a Nature lover or ‘Urban Activist’, a key aim is to raise awareness of wetlands and their value for our planet.

Each new season, I have been asked to create a new version of the ident, keeping the same look and feel, but featuring a different species, specifically one that is featured in one of that series episodes. The challenge is to incorporate the particuler creature front and centre, with space right across the middle to allow for the WATERLANDS title - it’s not always easy!

The change in typestyle has been introduced to tie in with WWT’s rebrand.

PROCESS

In the first instance (for series 1) the client approached me with a relatively clear idea on the direction they wanted to take for the ident - a bright and colourful illustration which incorporated a wetlands species along with a variety of plantlife and vegetation. Colours were to be from the existing WWT Palette.

For series 2 I was asked to keep with the same overall style and approach so that the ident would be recognisable, but feature a species relating to the pond theme. Having been given a shortlist of possible species, I created sketches for 3 possible options, with the dragonfly being selected as the preferred option.

PROCESS - SERIES 1

My initial sketch stage showed a few different bird species and layout options with the Waterlands title.

The second round of sketches - pictured below - included some variations on one of the routes I’d presented initially (the top line of sketches shown) and in addition, the client also asked to see an alternative version, featuring another of their suggested species. I drew up 2 extra options for this - essentially the same layout but with different birds species ( the 2 sketches at the bottom of the page below.)

The sketch labelled d (bottom left) was selected as the preferred option to progress. So I worked that one up, and that became the final artwork, as seen above…

If you’re interested to have a listen to the podcast, why not search it out on Apple Podcasts or Spotify ?

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