This commissioned piece was created for Amira Nuseibeh for her BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) podcast called “Rings and Wings”. This podcast is all about the surprising stories and incredible journeys that have been uncovered from bird ringing and nest recording, and about some of the amazing people behind that work. It is a brilliant podcast that communicates areas of science in an informative and engaging way, I was honoured to be involved in the cover art design.

For this commission I was asked to incorporate two iconic bird species, a nest and something to symbolise bird ringing into the design. I gave Amira a choice of species and borders from initial sketches (see below). Amira decided on the Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) and Hobby (Falco subbuteo) for the final species, and I made sure these illustrations were bold and scientifically-accurate. I then created a border from the shapes of the silver bird rings used in ringing, alongside illustrating actual rings on the legs of each bird. Lastly, I created a simple, personalised font for Amira.

We collaborated with the final colour designs of the cover towards the end and decided on the green and yellow scheme.

The final designs can be seen on Amira’s podcast here.

These designs were illustrated using Procreate.