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Illustrated Bird Field Guides

Creating public schools educational materials to help middle schoolers practice scientific observation

OVERVIEW:

Bird School Project(BSP) is a non-profit outdoor education organization that partners with Santa Cruz middle school science teachers to teach kids how to be inquisitive thinkers through birdwatching
After completing an internship with BSP and finding that the educational materials were unappealing to a younger audience, I worked with Kevin the BSP director to create two kid-friendly field guides (Wings & Feathers) that could be used by the BSP team and the general public.
This project was awarded the Webster Fellowship Award ($1500)

CHALLENGES:

The Wings and Feathers field guides were made entirely from scratch and I was responsible for illustrating, designing, and writing all the content found on each page
I had never designed any product like this before and was challenged with page layout and filtering what information should/should not be kept on the page

OUTCOMES:

The end result were 2 colorful seven page field guides about identifying bird wings and feathers
They were easy to read and understand and practical for indoor and outdoor use
The content complements the BSP curriculum and is now an essential part of the instructors materials
- The Feathers field guide still needs a bit of tweaking before public use
The BSP lesson sequence using the Wings field guide is posted on the Santa Cruz Office of Education

What are we creating? What is needed?
Our intention for the Wings guides was to provide easy ways for people to learn how to identify different wing shapes using various observation methods. We wanted to include some factual information about what advantages those differences offer to the bird, so people could understand why specific types of birds have a certain wing type.

Essential Page Content:

(A) illustration of wings | (B) representation of wing shape | (C) flight pattern | (D) bird example/fact (E) advantage of specific wing shape

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The version shown here is the digital flip book that is currently being used by BSP staff. Kevin made some changes to increase readability and add more informational content. Compared to previous iterations, this shows a simpler font, absent background, and more informational text.

For the Feathers Guide, we decided to have a page dedicated to different characteristics of a bird feather, like feather type, part of a feather, color, and function. Our intention for the Feathers guide was to provide detailed descriptions of what feathers could look like and how feathers are structured differently depending on their purpose. By providing both identifying characteristics of a feather and an explanation of the purpose those features serve, people could more easily identify feathers they find while adventuring.

Essential Page Content:

(A) identifying characteristics | (B) function | (C) visual examples

The version shown here is the first iteration I made. I wanted to make it colorful and informative, but I ended up relying more on words than my illustrations. This version reads more like an informative book than a practical field guide for identifying feathers in the wild. I wanted to show this version because I liked the layout and visual theme of this version more than my second iteration. * (This guide is less developed than the Wings field guide and still needs revision before it can be used by the public.)

01: goal setting

a

b

c

d

e

a

b

c

PROCESS
I chose to hand draw and color the illustrations on paper because I wanted that natural sketchbook look. A After I finished illustrating, I would scan and upload my images into Canva to digitally arrange the images.

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The mediums I used were watercolor, gouache, ink pen. I drew the example wing photos life-size using taxidermy specimen from the university's natural history center as reference.

02: Illustrating

01: Goal Setting

02: Illustrating

DECISIONS DECISION DECISIONS
I thoroughly underestimated how difficult it would be to arrange all the information in an educational and visually pleasing way. Designing a functional template for each guide required visualizing where the text should be, how much text will there me, where to place the images, spacing, size, and color. Every decision presented a multitude of options and I had to keep the intention of the field guide in mind in order to make the best choice. Below I've highlighted several design decision that came up during the iteration and review process:

Before

AFTER

For the Wings guide my main challenge was figuring out how to break down the information into standard characteristics for each wing and how to format this information. In my first iteration I had an advantage and disadvantage box for how each wing changed the way that bird interacted with the forces of flight. I realized that that box was very ambiguous and not very informative. I also learned how to use color blocks to isolate information so it didn't feel too text heavy. Also, I learned to spread out my images so they didn't all clump in the middle or along the edges

Before

AFTER

In my initial design of the '4 Forces of Flight' I was cramming too much information into the small page. I realized even though all the information fit on the page, it was really hard to look at and felt very crowded how to simplify complex topic. To remedy this I split the four forces into two separate pages, each dedicated to one opposing pair of forces. This allowed me to go in more depth about each force and space out the information. Deciding how to word the text on this page was also really challenging because the physics of flight require an understanding of air density, acceleration, and friction. Simplifying these complex ideas was a fun test for my own understanding of these concepts though!

Main Takeaways:

don't be limited by the canvas size
break down complex information into smaller chunks
don't create definitions, use everyday experiences as examples

Before

For the Feathers guide, I was conflicted in presenting information in a particular aesthetic style and having the information be displayed clearly. In my first iteration, the font choice and bright colors were too noisy and distracting. The ideal we were going for was a scientist's observational notes, where there are less paragraphs and more descriptive labels. I tried to tone down the visuals in my second iteration, but I think I went too bland. While I can see how the design of the first version may be more artistic than informative, the second version seems very flat and life-less. In future edits, I will aim for a design in between these two iterations.

Before

AFTER

Here are two other examples of a similar conflict between messy vs bland design. I think I was more confident in my background knowledge about bird wings than feathers. I was able to think of more creative illustrations to communicate what I wanted to convey with words, but in the Feathers guide I relied more on my words than my illustrations. To me, I think my design of the Feathers got worse with the second iteration while my Wings improved. What I learned from is is that familiarity with the content you are designing can be the greatest mental block if you don't realize that lack of knowledge is what is holding back your creativity.