Sudan: The last male northern white rhino.
Sudan, the last male northern white rhino in existence passed away in March of 2018. Prior to his death, the Ol Pejeta Conservancy located in Kenya, where Sudan lived, held a GoFundMe campaign titled #MakeARhino in which funds were being raised to help pay for the extremely expensive IVF procedure to impregnate southern white rhino surrogates. I wanted to create something to sell and help raise awareness of the situation and donate all proceeds to the campaign.
Research and development
For this project I wanted to create something that would touch people’s hearts. The first time I saw a picture of Sudan it brought tears to my eyes. The sadness and loneliness I saw in Sudan’s phot reminded me of the iconic Eeyore character from the old Winnie the Pooh cartoons. I used his likeness to evoke a feeling of nostalgia and familiarity.
I colored the image in Adobe Photoshop and sent the final design to a company specializing in making soft-enamel pins. I designed a packaging in the likeness of the backgrounds seen in the old Winne the Pooh cartoons and books and used a generated typeface familiar to that of the books as well.
Final design with packaging
The design came to life well, and I hope it helps create more life for northern white rhinos. After the pins were delivered and the packagin was complete, I notified Ol Pejeta of my creation and intention and it was well-received. Ol Pejeta placed a short write-up in their monthly E-newsletter about my Sudan pin, along with a link to my website as to where people could purchase them. Afterwards I received orders from around the globe for the pins from U.K. to Australia. I wear this pin on my lapel often, and get to tell Sudan’s story to a new person each time I do.