Wildlife Communication / Packaging Design / Field-informed Ecological Storytelling
Developed with Chengdu Clover Nature Education Centre
Field research in Pingwu County, Sichuan, China
2026
Focusing on the Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey, the project explores how packaging design can become a small but accessible medium for communicating protected species, forest habitats, and conservation narratives to the public. The project began with field research in Pingwu County, Sichuan. We visited local communities and forest protection areas, observed national park signage and conservation infrastructure, and spoke with forest rangers about their everyday experiences of monitoring and protecting the mountain environment. Due to seasonal conditions, we did not directly encounter the golden snub-nosed monkeys during the visit. However, this absence became an important part of the design reflection. The species was understood not only through direct sight, but through its habitat, protection systems, ranger narratives, and the everyday work that keeps the forest livable.
Through illustration, colour, typography, and packaging composition, the final design translates this field-informed understanding into an approachable visual identity, turning the Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey from a distant conservation subject into a more memorable everyday encounter.
Pingwu County is located within an important ecological region connected to giant panda and Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey conservation. In collaboration with Chengdu Clover Nature Education Centre, the field visit helped situate the project within a real conservation and nature education context.
The visit revealed that wildlife protection is not only about the animals themselves, but also about forests, mountain roads, warning signs, monitoring systems, local communities, and the everyday labour of forest rangers.
In this context, the Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey appears as both a real protected species and a symbolic presence within the landscape. Even when the animal is not directly visible, its existence shapes how the forest is managed, how people talk about the mountain, and how conservation can be communicated to the public.
Field Research
Conversations with Forest Rangers
Designing from Absence
Visual Translation into Packaging
Outcome
The final outcome is a field-informed packaging visual system for wildlife communication and nature education. It combines species illustration, forest-inspired colours, and ecological storytelling to make the Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey more visible, approachable, and memorable in everyday product experience.
Rather than presenting the animal as a decorative mascot, the packaging attempts to carry the wider conservation context behind it: the mountain habitat, the protection work, the local landscape, and the quiet presence of a species that is often known through care rather than direct encounter.
For me, this project is not only a packaging design exercise, but also a reflection on how more-than-human beings enter public imagination through everyday design media.
The field visit with Chengdu Clover Nature Education Centre made me realise that protected species are not always encountered directly. Sometimes they are present through signs, habitats, ranger stories, restricted areas, and the systems of care that make their lives possible.
The value of the project lies in this act of translation: from field research to visual language, from absence to imagination, from conservation work to everyday product experience.
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