Narrative information design
The brief for this project was to choose a native New Zealand species that is endangered. Establish their current status and map the progression of their decline (how quickly this has happened and over what time). Investigate how, why and what has caused this. Identify what is being done to protect the species, and what theirpredicted survival will be with and without intervention. Design a series of three posters that tells the story of the species using statistics, facts and context using visualised data, maps, diagrams, text, symbols, graphic elements and colour.
All illustrations are my own work.
My posters are aimed at people who are not familiar with the takahē. Illustrations of the birds and their threats are used to immediately familiarise the viewer with them. Starting at the top left, the information moves from the general and contextual to the specific. After the illustrations, the next thing I intend the viewer to see is a blue badge with an overarching factoid in keeping with the theme of each poster.
I’ve used a limited colour palette outside the illustrations to keep the focus on the information and enhance clarity. Shades of dark blue from the takahē’s feathers are used for symbols, graphs and typography. Orange-red from the takahē beak is consistently used when referring to wild populations. I chose the display typeface (Dancer Pro – used for the poster titles and main body text headings) for its solidity and roundness. The lower case ‘a’ resembles the shape of the takahē’s body.
The overall narrative of the posters is the takahē’s struggle to survive without assistance. The poster series begins by introducing the once “extinct” takahe and its main features. It also informs where people can see takahe and how many are left. The threats to takahē and the causes of its decline are then introduced. Finally, the recovery activities that support takahē are set out, with a focus on the Burwood captive rearing programme. The overall narrative ends with two possible outcomes for takahē based on whether the recovery programme continues or not. This indicates that the takahē’s future is not certain.
Each poster has a central information visualisation (aside from the illustrations). The map of where takahē live indicates that most takahē live in sanctuaries. The bar graph in poster 2 provides overall population trends for the last twenty years (building on the current tally in Poster 1) but focuses on the effect that stoat plagues have on the wild population. Having investigated other modes of visualisation, I think that a bar graph is the most effective way of showing the dramatic drops in population and their overall impact on the wild takahē population. In poster 3 the central graphic shows that of the many eggs laid, less than a third hatch into healthy birds. These graphics support the overall narrative of the struggle of wild populations.
