Ahoy folks! TL;DR: What do you think of the name/branding/design of "Now or Never: A Rally Against Extinction!" for a zoological overlanding expedition, and does this art style look okay? Context: I'm a zoologist, and have spent the last five years or so cobbling an overlanding research expedition together; driving a modified Land Rover from Oxford, UK to Cape Town, South Africa, and back, on a real-life Pokémon adventure to find a buncha' niche, weird, threatened animals in the wild, contribute to zoological and conservation research along the way, and write about n' share the science and the journey. I wrote a little about it here. I did a trial run last year towards Dakar to field test equipment and present a solid viability case for both the larger expedition and the formal scientific component. Alas, despite being inundated with requests by folks here there and everywhere asking to follow the misadventures, my insides shrivel at the thought of social media, but I enjoy writing at least (and maybe I'm not half bad at it either; can catch me as a regular in r/askscience - see here, here, and here etc.) and so I'm working on a wee website to share the zoology and expedition publicly. Problem: Branding! I've settled on a placeholder name ("Now or Never: A Rally Against Extinction!") and a design aesthetic, but I kinda' hate it - but this may just be me being too self-critical. I wanted something that would evoke: Time running out for these forgotten species, so we gotta' act fast if we want to save 'em! Is obviously overlanding travel and/or wildlife related. It sort of fails this, bar the subtitle. The world in which these species live is becoming increasingly threatened; geopolitical instability has already meant many places are inaccessible to researchers and conservationists due to conflict. This kind of 'adventure travel' / overlanding is becoming increasingly difficult. Since planning started in 2020, near enough 13 countries then accessible are largely or almost completely impossible to visit by land now, and the East route from Cairo to Cape Town is closed. How long until the Western route follows suit? There's a tiny personal angle; millenial getting older and feeling the need to do this sort of thing ASAP. "Last Chance to See" - which is what I'd really want - is already taken; another 'finding extremely rare wildlife' series from many years ago. It's currently unused, so perhaps worthwhile getting in touch with the licencing owners to see if I could revitalise and collaborate for re-use? But then it's not really my own. Other nice examples of existing branding include: "Long Way Round / Down... ", "First / Last Overland", "Itchy Boots", "The Road Chose Me", "Zoo Quest" etc. I was otherwise mulling over something along the line of "tracks" - i.e. evoking both animal tracks and tyre tracks - "Last Tracks" or "Fading Tracks" or similar. The scientific side - which will be a separate, more formal, albeit linked, site - are "Project Traces" (for the eDNA sampling research) and "Field Genomes" (for the portable mobile genome sequencing lab aspect of the trip). Question #1: What do y'all think of the title? Yay, nay, just okay? Any alternatives much appreciated! Question #2: What do you think of this art style? I'm trying to call to mind and pay homage to the ol' 1990s Ken Sugimori Pokémon watercolour art style. I digitally draw everything myself, but don't think I've quite gotten the right aesthetic that fits (digital watercolour brushes never really look right anyway, but mostly my line work in Krita can't replicate genuine IRL inking, alas). The designs are a smidge too complex compared to good old Blastoise, but the trouble is making the animals simpler risks removing the important details used to ID them. It's hella' slow to produce too. If I could afford a proper artist to do the graphics I would; AI can't replicate my style so doesn't solve the look nor labour bottleneck either (I have nothing against using it; I even tried training a dedicated LoRA, but output is garbage, even if just colouring in lines I draw myself). If you're read this far, many thanks! Any comments, thoughts, criticisms, suggestions much appreciated.   submitted by   /u/tea_and_biology [link]   [comments]