Development

Pets are a big part of life for many of us. PDSA's 2024 survey estimated that a massive 51% of UK adults are pet owners! The importance of knowing how to care for these pets should go without saying - although our understanding of animal welfare is vastly better than even a decade ago, continued improvement banks heavily on the everyday pet owner having access to the correct guidance.

This project focuses on just that. The aim was to conceive hypothetical plans for a visual pet care range that would be both engaging and informative; an accessible educational tool for pet owners. I planned to create a sample from this range, illustrating information and care on key domestic species, to demonstrate how the use of effective visuals could improve on current available guidance.

conceptual project brief

I designed the brief based on a multi-faceted perspective:

As an animal lover with much non-human family, I have years of personal experience in animal care. Having largely self-educated, I can appreciate the importance of accessible, accurate advice when learning the ropes - I know what would've been helpful at the start, and what was difficult to find guidance on.
Working in the pet care industry, I am familiar with its current systems. As a pet care advisor, personal observations and interaction with customers/colleagues grant me a good insight into what is and isn't effective for communicating information. This is particularly noticeable in current leaflets being excessively wordy (unsuitable for a customer base diverse in age and neurotype), and also in the lack of accessible information on more "exotic" pets compared to the better-known dog and cat (which often leads to the practice of inadequate care).
As an illustrator with an interest in educational visuals, I like to explore the ability of art to teach and bridge communication gaps.

The above collectively puts me right in the centre of the matter at hand; with a 360-degree view of all the successes and shortcomings of what's out there currently, and a first-hand idea of where improvement is needed.

As well as reflecting personal passion, I felt this project had good potential for portfolio value. The brief challenges me to demonstrate ability in multiple areas such as visual communication, graphic design and versatility, and could also appeal to potential clients in the illustration and/or pet care industry.

LOOKING AT CURRENT EXAMPLES

I began by looking into examples of existing pet care guidance. I looked at a wide range of sources for as broad a view as possible; this included retail leaflets, product packaging and advertisement, magazines, websites and online articles, user forums, posters, infographics and books. This confirmed the aforementioned shortcomings to me in that:

There's a wide range of guidance available for cats and dogs, in multiple different formats which cater to different age groups/neurotypes/types of learner/etc - for "exotics", there is rarely more than a wordy leaflet with generic stock photos.
Exotics are often overlooked in commercial sources, underestimated as "easy pets" or misunderstood. Particular examples of this include rats (hindered by reputation), rabbits (notoriously mistaken as easy pets for children) and aquatic pets (underestimation of complex chemistry).
Specialist forums seem to have high levels of gatekeeping behaviour, making it unapproachable and difficult for beginners to learn.

After thinking on this and discussing with a few colleagues who offered their opinions, I decided I wanted to focus solely on the more overlooked species whose care guides had much more room for improvement.

a recent example of a commercial petcare leaflet (Pets At Home / RSPCA)

Below I have included examples of personal influence and inspiration for this project. The left-hand gallery shows existing visuals in current pet retail, including a rare example I found of an engaging illustration for exotics, while the right-hand gallery shows some visual guidebooks and infographics I'm particularly fond of for their carefully designed/orientated visuals.

VISUALISING THE CONCEPT OF A RANGE

The next step was to think about what sort of visuals the range could include. In my notes below you can see my thought processes as I work through options and ideas, considering what information should be covered as well as application and target audience. I also did some research into commercial formats such as brochures, leaflets, etc - to properly consider what would be most effective where, and for what purpose.

I made some notes on potential ideas for store and retail-based visual applications, but I ended up focusing on creating more of an independent range that had potential to be picked up and distributed by retail.

customer/independent-based range ideas

in-store range ideas

notes on commercial formats

a more "finalised" idea of what my range could include

At one point I considered doing print charts of breeds/variations, so I'd doodled some relevant information down in case I needed it later.

At this point I was also looking into printing options. I had initially intended to print, so from the beginning I wanted to make sure I knew my options and my designs were adhering to any technical requirements for printing (available formats, dimensions, etc). Some of my notes on this are featured below.

considering which formats were most effective for which topics

FINDING A STYLE

Inspired by the effectiveness of infographic guides, I wanted to explore and utilise a simplistic style for these visuals. However, I wanted to add elements of expression, humour and fluidity to veer slightly from the rather clinical, stiff style of some of my influences. Below are some of my initial analogue sketches testing out style using shape, expression, linework and colour/tone. I thought of "key" domestic species of exotic pet most commonly encountered in pet retail, and drew a page of sketches for each.

E X P E R I M E N T A L S K E T C H E S . . .

using simple shapes expressively

experimental style sketches (rabbits)

experimental style sketches (aquatics)

experimental style sketches (gerbils)

experimental style sketches (guinea pigs)

experimental style sketches (hamsters)

experimental style sketches (rats)

I wanted to do the project finals in digital, so after I'd sketched out some analogue tests I narrowed them down to those I felt would work best for the task at hand - I could then work on translating them into digital visuals.

T R A N S L A T I N G T O D I G I T A L . . .

working process trying out styles of linework, colour and tone

cleaned up variations of pet icons

Above are the finalised variations of digital icons for rabbits, rats, gerbils, guinea pigs, Syrian hamsters and Russian dwarf hamsters.

LAYOUT AND FORMAT

Of course to illustrate a species' information effectively in whatever format, it had to be laid out in a systematic way that would be sensical to read through. Below you can see me working that system out to move forward with.

L E A F L E T L A Y O U T T E S T S . . .

Inspired by the lackluster retail leaflets I mentioned earlier, I had a go first at designing more visually-engaging leaflet pages - pages in which the visuals enhanced the communication of information, as opposed to there being barely any amongst screeds of words. The diagram of Z-fold and C-folds was me trying to wrap my dyspraxia around leaflet layouts to ensure I got the right order of info across the pages.

leaflet fold type notes with relevant layouts

leaflet layout notes for rat care

a mock DL rat care page

f L A S H c A R D L A Y O U T T E S T S . . .

I was inspired by a set of plant care cards I have to try some flashcard concepts, which you can see below. I ultimately decided these weren't worth moving forward with given the target audience and application requirements of the brief.

I did, however, like how these flat-colour digital versions turned out - I used this as inspiration later not for flashcards, but for an app design (kind of like a digital set of flashcards). The style below is not one I am used to and it was difficult for me to move away from the traditional ink-like linework I usually use, but working out how to do that was worth it in fuelling the idea of an app with a similar style (I felt that would be particularly effective in digital format).

working notes for digital flashcard concepts

digital flashcard style concepts (cleaned up)

DEVELOPING THE BOOKLET

Having explored ideas, I decided the range sample I was going to create would include one of a hypothetical sub-range of complete care booklets tailored to each species. I wanted this to be an approachable, visually engaging and enjoyable guide whilst still being able to convey comprehensive care advice and information.

This was supposed to be an A6 perfect-bound booklet format, which I had done all the research for and planned the visuals around, and for which I had also been in contact with printers. Unfortunately due to time constraints I was only able to create a small sample of pages from this book instead of the entirety - I am keen to return to it later to finish it, however.

P R I N T I N G E T I Q U E T T E . . .

Above you can see my notes on printing. I had to learn a lot about printing requirements such as bleed and safe zones; I do not have a technical brain, so this was ridiculously difficult. I got there in the end in my own way.

I L L U S T R A T I N G T H E P A G E S . . .

thumbnails and page charting

After style, brush and colour tests, the above is the process I used for illustrating the book pages. Below you can see all the development following this including creation of visuals, type, layout, cover design, test prints, etc.

T Y P E F A C E S . . .

C O V E R D E S I G N . . .

Below were the first set of finals.

I decided to change the colour after a happy accident with the border layer.

I designed a decorative endpage spread based on my own rats on their windowsill, to add a personal touch - I thought that would be good for readers to know their guide was written by someone with their own first-hand experience.