A Ride for Life: Illustrating a Wildlife Campaign
The Brief
In January 2026, Rob approached me to design the anchor illustration for a new campaign called A Ride for Life — a public engagement project encouraging people to care about the natural world for their own health and wellbeing, and as part of the fight against climate change.
Rather than a single sponsored ride, Rob's approach is a season of visibility: cycling around the North York Moors National Park throughout summer and autumn on his bright orange bike, wearing cycling gear printed with the campaign illustration, and giving talks at local schools and interest groups along the way. He needed an illustration that could work as hard in person — stopping people in their tracks to start a conversation — as it would online.
The brief called for a single illustration incorporating at least 20 key species across sky, land and sea, people enjoying the natural environment, and the campaign title, all legible at a printed size of 36 x 25cm.
The Challenge
The central tension in this brief was scale versus detail: Rob wanted breadth — as many species and as much of the North York Moors landscape as possible — but the illustration also needed to read clearly from a distance, printed onto cycling gear, at a size roughly the width of an A4 sheet.
We agreed early on that the priority was impact over intricacy: bright, eye-catching and immediately readable, so that it did its job of getting people to stop and talk to Rob. That decision shaped every choice that followed, from the flatness of the colour palette to how much space I left between species, or the relatively simple background illustration.
Accuracy still mattered enormously, though. This wasn't a brief for loose, decorative wildlife illustration — every bird needed correct markings and wing shape, every species had to be identifiable at a glance to anyone who knew the landscape. The one place I was given licence to play was scale: a ladybird and a spider could take up as much space on the page as a badger or an English Longhorn, letting smaller, easily-overlooked species share equal billing with the landscape's larger, more obvious residents.
The Approach
I build all of my illustration work from individually hand-drawn elements, which I scan and then digitally collage together. For a project like this, that process is invaluable: it meant the composition could evolve throughout development, with species, people and landmarks resized and repositioned as we worked through concepts and roughs, without needing to start again from scratch.
The finished illustration incorporates 28 species across sky, land and sea, 8 spot illustrations of people enjoying the outdoors — walking, cycling (Rob, on his bright orange bike), gardening, birdwatching, fishing — and four North York Moors landmarks: the Lilla Cross, Grosmont train tunnel, Beggar's Bridge on the Esk, and the cliff arch at Brimham Rocks. Woven through the piece are small prompts for living more lightly: a house with solar panels and an EV, a bus and train, and an allotment — a quiet nod to the campaign's climate message alongside its celebration of nature.
Accuracy was key
Getting 28 species accurate meant substantial image research, drawing on online photo sources and my own collection of nature field guides for the finer points of markings and plumage. Rob also sent me his own photographs of species he'd watched in his own garden, which gave particular species a personal connection to the campaign — a pair of turtle doves among them. The turtle doves were a species I'd never illustrated before, and it took two or three attempts to get their markings and posture right to Rob's satisfaction.
Value, added!
Because every element existed as its own piece of artwork, the project grew beyond the original brief as we talked. As Rob's campaign is particularly aimed at engaging a younger audience, I suggested producing colouring sheets from the linework of both the full illustration and individual species — giving him a free, printable resource for his school visits. The same modular artwork also meant I could supply Rob with individual illustration files for the species information pages on his campaign website, and design pin badges and stickers reusing the same characters.
What started as a single anchor illustration became a small system of campaign assets, all sharing one visual identity — without any additional illustration work.
This is where my background outside of illustration tends to show up in how I approach a brief. Fifteen years spent thinking about donor journeys, supporter engagement and campaign communications means I rarely see a commission as a single deliverable — I'm usually already thinking about where else the artwork could work harder for a client's budget and their audience.
The Outcome
The anchor illustration is complete and now printed onto Rob's cycling gear and the sign attached to his bike, ready for a summer and autumn of rides and talks across the North York Moors.
Rob's campaign website — featuring the full illustration alongside individual species information pages — is now live and is well worth a visit:
What Rob says
“It has been an absolute pleasure to work with Ali Edwards (Coostie Illustration) to deiiver my complex promotional requirements.
Ali has not only provided all the wonderful illustrations that I needed for my community advocacy project, but she has accompanied me along the journey and presented me with some excellent ideas and suggestions that have helped make my project more interesting and engaging for visitors to the website, including children.
Ali has made a huge contribution to ensure the success of the project, and throughout the extensive iterative development stages, she has always responded professionally and with total commitment to delivering my requirements – on time!
Consequently, I am totally satisfied that I have received value for money, and more from Ali and I have no hesitation in making an unequivocal recommendation to anyone who is thinking of employing her to provide your project illustrative design artwork. You will not be disappointed!. Thank you Ali!”
Rob Heap, Founder of A Ride For Life
Planning a public engagement or awareness campaign?
If you need illustration that's accurate and identifiable, visually striking at scale, and flexible enough to work across print, digital and merchandise — I'd love to talk. Take a look at my Commissions page and get in touch.