Kew Gardens | Plants for Unity
‘Plants for Unity’ is a publication created in collaboration with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Garden’s Youth Forum, centred around three important stories; The Fungi’s Forest, The Ugly Hereos, and No Pig is an Island.
Hitting topics of biodiversity, habitat loss, belonging, and that every plant and fungus (no matter how ‘ugly’) has its place firmly rooted in our ecosystem.The publication was designed through 6 monthly workshops I hosted with the youth forum group from ideation, research gathering, on location drawing sessions, interviewing kew scientists, developing characters and narratives, script writing and development, storyboarding to creating the final artwork. I worked with the youth forums storyboards, sketches, and colour palettes, and then curated, illustrated and coloured them digitally to make the publication - making sure to stay true to their original ideas and concepts. Each group also made a collaborative font which we used to highlight keywords throughout their stories. Design support from @studio_bilo on the final publication design.
The Youth Forum were a joy to work with. Some members were initially (understandably) a little worried about the drawing side of things. Yet they all pushed themselves out of their comfort zones and created something that represents scientifically important and meaningful stories whilst being witty and clever. Additionally, they all confidently presented their comics and ideas at the Kew Gardens Community Open Week 2024, running workshops to get the local community making and creating too.
Each group also made their collaborative font which we used to highlight key words throughout.
