I am a creative and imaginative illustrator, with a passion for children's illustration and environmental issues. My work focuses on collage and textural elements, combining traditional techniques and digital rendering, using Adobe programmes and Procreate.
The Spirit Project is an interactive AR trail based in The Outwoods, Charnwood, designed to raise awareness of the risks to ancient woodlands and encourage respectful engagement with ancient woodland sites. The visuals implement anthropomorphic imagery in order to enhance empathy between the characters and the viewer, and the characters are designed to represent the legends and folklore attached to different tree species. The characters lead the viewer through the woods through QR code checkpoints with AR animations that can be viewed at each one. The QR codes are designed to be as cohesive and non damaging to the environment as possible, so would be made out of biodegradable sticker material, which could be replenished as and when necessary. The trail ends at the on site cafe, where viewers can scan a final QR code taking them to a website with more information, where they would be able to make a donation or sign a petition, if the want to get involved and make a change.
The main set of visuals I created for this project were the anthropomorphic characters, designed to create a sense of empathy in the user; encouraging them to donate to help support the project. I created tree spirit designs which represent the ancient woodland that the Spirit project aims to encourage people to protect. Alongside these, I created fairy designs which aim to show that the ancient woodlands are home to creatures that we need to protect.
Tree spirit character design.
Fairy character design.
Using these tree spirits and fairy designs, I was able to create posters advertising the project, using photos of the woodlands that the Spirit project aims to protect as the backgrounds.
I also created two different maps for the project, a stakeholder map, and a way finding map, shown below.
A map of the woodland trail that would be given to users to help explain the trail and how to follow it.
A stakeholder map, showing how the parties involved with bringing the Spirit project to life would interact with one another.
I created multiple mockups to showcase how the user would interact with the Spirit project; scanning QR codes with their phones to view augmented reality scenes learning information about the woodlands they are walking through. Further to this, I created multiple different ideas to raise awareness and persuade a user to interact with the project in the form of posters and takeaway drinks cups.
An example of a user interacting with the Spirit project, viewing the augmented reality scene using their phone.
