Whale Song - Prospectus
ART DIRECTION, BOOK DESIGN, 3D RENDERING: JANUARY - APRIL 2023
Whale Song is a proposed public art sculpture and community education project for the Kāpiti Coast region of New Zealand. Designed by Mike Fuller, the bronze sculpture presents seven life-size humpback whales swimming in a pod formation, ranging in size from eight to 24 metres in length, and suspended in the air over a one acre site. When built, it will be New Zealand’s largest public sculpture.
In January, the Whale Song Trust asked me to design their prospectus for the project's fundraising campaign. The prospectus began life as a word document and quickly began to take shape over several months. Our goal was to have the books printed and mailed to potential investors before a formal fundraising launch at The Roxy Cinema on 9 May 2023.
A whale of a project
It was a collaborative effort from start to finish: I worked closely with the artist, writers, architects and printers to create a spectacular final product. For the design, I wanted to focus on elegance, white space and minimalism, with a colour palette limited to an ocean blue, bronze and cream, printed with a combination of process colour and spot Pantone inks. Design elements include a die-cut introduction page revealing a humpback whale eye painted by artist Sofie Seyah, and abstract lines resembling water waves and baleen.
The stars of the show are the whales, which were a combination of intimate minimalist renders I created - using 3D source files provided by the artist Mike Fuller - and beautiful environmental renders by Tilt Architecture that captured the scope and wonder of the installation, highlighted with a fold-out section of the prospectus.
The books were printed by Blue Star Wellington, with the cover including a combination of a in-line spot matt, which allowed the gloss paper to create a spot gloss effect - this effect was used throughout the prospectus - and an emboss layer for the tubercles and ridges on each whale, which I individually hand-painted to get the right placement.
Magnificent, mighty and memorable
Each prospectus was presented to its recipient in a custom-made box designed by Blue Star Wellington, along with a personalised plaque created by Mike Fuller. The finished books looked and felt fantastic, with incredible print clarity and spectacular colour reproduction on every page.
The response to the prospectus was very positive. The fundraising event included speeches and presentations by Whale Song Trust Chair/Trustee Marco Zeeman, Puketapu ki Paraparaumu Trust Deputy Chair Takiri Cotterill (Te Atiawa), Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau, Kāpiti Coast District Council Mayor Janet Holborow, Dame Miranda Harcourt and Sir Richard Taylor.
This prospectus was a dream and an honour to work on. I am truly proud to be a part of this project and cannot wait for Whale Song to become a reality. Thank you to everyone who worked with me to make this prospectus happen, including Tim Upton and the team at Blue Star, Gavin Urquhart and Chris Stevens and the team at Tilt Architecture, Catherine Webb, Steve La Hood and Kylie VanDyke - and a very special thank you to Marco Zeeman and Mike Fuller.
If you are interested in finding out more information about Whale Song, please visit whalesong.kiwi
The cover design was created using 3D art files provided by artist Mike Fuller, in a formation similar to how they will be arranged on site. I wanted the cover to be bold, minimal, and elegant, with a focus on the whales' beautiful swimming formation. I worked closely with Mike to ensure the bronze colour was a close representation of the final statues and to make sure their arrangement is accurate to the proposed installation.
The books were printed by Blue Star Wellington, with the cover including a combination of a in-line spot matt, which allowed the gloss paper to create a spot gloss effect - this effect was used throughout the prospectus - and an emboss layer for the tubercles and ridges on each whale, which I individually hand-painted to get the right placement.
This introduction page features a die-cut of abstract water wave and baleen lines and bubbles, revealing a humpback whale eye painted by artist Sofie Seyah.
Using 3D files provided by the artist Mike Fuller, I was able to create new renders of the whales for the book's cover and the following images that emphasise the scale of the sculpture. My goal was to create a strong sense of scale between one person and just two whales, and then another image that pulls back to reveal all seven whales alone with one person.
This fold-out section highlights the incredible architectural and environmental imagery created by Tilt Architecture.
