Earth, Sea & Sky
Ministry for Culture & Heritage
Task: To design banners for the new theme "Earth, Sea & Sky" in Te Ara the Encyclopedia of New Zealand plus a new header for the homepage (www.teara.govt.nz). The theme header was to be a flash animation that gave an overall feel of the contents of the theme.
Outcome: The concept of the design was based on the inital brand for Te Ara which used rough, abstract textures based on comtempory NZ art to convey ideas of landscapes. I used these abstract shapes as outlines for the the Earth, Sea & Sky and keeping the shapes static, changed images within the shapes. This was to show how there is repetition in the design of nature across the earth, sea & sky and it helped to bring the three parts of the theme together.
I think the animation came together quite well, the challenge was condensing it to a length that would hold the attention of the audience, but a small enough file size for it to flow well on a dial-up connection. I am most pleased with the look of the last scene, the sky, and the effect of the snowy mountains against the Southern Cross. This theme was launched by Rt. Hon. Prime Minister, Helen Clark at the Embassy theatre in June. The editor Jock Philips discussed the new theme on Radio NZ, you can listen to the interview here (Windows Media Player).
