SPU’s Gray Whale
Role (Designer and Researcher): Design Research, Information Design, Motion Graphics, Topic Research
Displaying its grandness in Eaton Hall is the skeletal remains of a gray whale from Longbranch, WA. I was honored to be given the opportunity to present the story of how the whale was transported to the city along with information about the lives of the gray whales. Most importantly though, I was tasked with bringing awareness to the issue of climate change and how it is causing many gray whales just like this one to wash up on the west coast. The total deliverables of the project consisted of 3 panels and a motion graphic video.
Anatomy of the Gray Whale
Information about gray whales and this particular whale was told through the use of three consecutive panels. The first one touched on the anatomy of the whale and the timeline of how it was transported SPU. The biggest challenge of this part for me was researching about the anatomy of the whale and presenting it through design. I wanted to make sure that the whale’s anatomy was illustrated accurately and I wanted to verify that each anatomical part included was relevant.
Facts About the Gray Whale
This panel is where the bulk of the data is and is designed to be the most informational one. One of the requirements for this project was that I had to use a certain amount of data graphics. With this came the challenge of having to decide what data I was going to gather and use. To help with this, I decided to refer back to my story structure to evaluate what story I wanted to tell. Well, there were two characters in my story, the whale and climate change. I used this panel to tell the story of the whale and foreshadow the effects that climate change will have.
Climate Change
This panel told the story of how climate change affects the population of the gray whale. It linked the melting ice caps with the depletion of food which in turns causes UMEs (unusual mortality events) seen on the west coast. This is such a complex issues that took me a really long time to research and get educated about. The bigger challenge here though was actually simplifying it down to concise points. To overcome this, I went through my research notes again and again until I was able to take out enough information but still had a story that made sense. This slide also became the basis for my motion graphic which was created about a week after the completion of these panels.
