Project Background
The Western Kentucky’s Local Birds Zine was created as an engaging, educational, take-home piece for the 2025 Earth Day Celebration at Murray State University’s Arboretum. As a Conservation Biology student, Jillian Murphy (a fellow student) and I tabled for MSU’s Biological Sciences Department to educate the community on this region’s birds. Our focus was to create interest and curiosity around our local birds for all ages. With this goal, my focus as the designer was on playful color and texture choices coupled with photography that personified the birds—mostly using my own photos, save a few in the innermost table. We were on a quick timeline, needed 200 copies, and had to hand-cut them ourselves the night before the event!
As my first design project back in the realm of nature and conservation education, I decided to have a bit of fun with it myself. I landed on creating a collage-type zine with photography and hand-cut paper overlays of typography and additional elements. This zine was scrappy on purpose! I used what I had around my house and rolled with it.
Jillian and I co-wrote the zine, while I designed, supplied photography, and created the crossword puzzle in the back.
Pictured are my scrappy, hand-cut letters and funky illustrations. I knew from the beginning how I wanted it laid out, though getting into the actual work always changes your course. Working in such a small area is tough, especially when there’s so much information you’d like to get across and leave room for sign elements. Once I headed to the computer, I realized pretty quickly I had to eliminate a few elements (pictured in my sketches).
In July of Summer 2025, I was able to repurpose the design to a one-sheet flyer for another conservation-focused tabling event. This one was for the Green Heart Project in Louisville, where I worked as a Bird Point Count Survey Technician for the season.
