Create a series of posters featuring animals in the association’s SAFE program (Saving Animals From Extinction). As each animal is inducted into the program, an action plan is formulated by member institutions to address the issue. The project’s purpose was to raise awareness in the member institutions' visiting populations as well as the general public.

The client's creative requirements included:
• The additional capability of member institutions to brand the posters with their logo and offer it for their own sales and promotional efforts.
• The creation of social media variants (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram).
• The client had suggested a style inspired by vintage travel posters of the 1930s-40s.

Taking the travel posters as inspiration, but not remaining wedded to that aesthetic, we (FF&A) created 19 posters, one for each endangered species. The client provided some reference photography and we used some of our own existing images as well as images shot specifically for the project.

Each image was created using a number of techniques– photography, photo compositing, as well as digital (Wacom Tablet) and conventional ink on paper drawing. In addition, the series was tied together with some common elements–distant horizon lines with changing angles of view, breaking the frame boundary with elements to enliven the composition, and treating a few items as flat graphic shapes to evoke the vintage posters mentioned in the client’s brief.

CLIENT COMMENTARY:

RAISING AWARENESS
SAFE POSTERS
Over the course of the Party for the Planet: Spring into Action campaign, AZA released a series of visually stunning poster graphics for the 19 SAFE species. The posters, along with accompanying social media graphics, were shared with AZA members to utilize during the awareness campaign. On AZA’s social media channels the most engaging images were giraffe on Facebook, black-footed ferret on Instagram, and orangutan on Twitter.

RAISING AWARENESS OF SAVING SPECIES
A key goal for SAFE is to raise awareness about saving species and the role of AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums in this effort. According to 2019 research, awareness of the SAFE program among people familiar with AZA is 46 percent and overall favorability among Millennials — a key action-oriented demographic — regarding zoos and aquariums is up nine points from 2018 to 2019. As part of AZA’s national communications strategy, a coordinated messaging toolkit complete with SAFE species graphics was created and shared with the AZA membership. During the coordinated SAFE campaign from Earth Day to World Oceans Day, AZA’s social posts reached nearly 1 million people. AZA members, who combined, have a potential reach of over 45 million people, were also encouraged to share the toolkit information.

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The client’s team was delighted with the result, stating that it was the most successful campaign that they have ever created and that they have never had such an overwhelmingly positive response from their members.