Hey. I'm Zev.

I'm a creative & communicator

helping you

tell your stories

in playful and impactful ways.

Work

Cat Alley - Melbourne Zoo 2023 - Zoos Victoria

Zev worked as an interpretive designer for Melbourne Zoo - Cat Alley - Zoo Victoria.
The role was to tell the story of the campaign by creating an animation that would be situated in the space. Zev researched, wrote and then animated the video.
He was also hired to tie together all the disparate styles of artwork that were already inside the Cat Alley zone. He created a set of characters and scenes that would tell the story and punctuate the space, leading audiences through the alleyway in a fun and photogenic way. Zev also created stickers and other materials for the client to augment and build on the campaign.

Island whales Festival 2022-2024 - Destination Philip Island, Dolphin Research Institute, Bass Coast Shire.

Zev worked as the creative on the organising committee for the Island Whales Festival - Phillip Island,Victoria. Over the last few years Zev has seen the festival grow contributing both design and interactive and interpretive installation design to the festival
• Created mascots and updated logo and marketing material for the festival:
• This included both festival signage and digital content
• Created educational activity book
• Created merchandise for the festival, including T-shirts, stickers, wooden magnets, reusable window stickers of underwater ecosystems
• Created interactive interpretive installation showcasing the marine life off Phillip Island:
• Large scale characters measuring up to 5m
• Interactive interpretive information included on an adventure of ground stickers
• Created interpretive signage of marine mammals of Philip Island - turned into posters for use in visitor information
centers,Whale watching cruises, and educational purposes

Phillip Island Penguin Parade Merchandise

Prehistoric Bayside Exhibition 2024 - Bayside City Council

Zev was approached by the curator and palaeontologist Ben Fransichelli to create some of the artworks and to help with the exhibition design for Prehistoric Bayside Exhibition.Work included a life-sized recreation of the largest bird to have ever existed, a five meter plus shark, and a full cartoon panorama showcasing what life would've looked like 5-6 million years ago.
Zev also worked on the exhibition design with the curators:
• Design of interpretive signage and information panels
• Design of exhibition logo and marketing materials including an animation.
• Design of stickers and poster
The exhibition is breaking all attendance records for Bayside.

Bass Coast Dinosaur Trail 2023 - Bass Coast Shire

Zev was a creative contributor to the Bass coast Dinosaur Trail.The initial role included building a trail map and other interps materials for the project website. He was also tasked to create a set of hero characters, one for each sites, based on the fossils and most up-to-date science.These were created working closely with leading Australian paleontologists to learn about, understand these creatures, and best communicate them in emotive and attractive ways - whilst staying true to anatomy and science.
As the project evolved Zev was employed in an expanded capacity:
• Create educational activity & colouring- in books
• Create a merchandise and retail opportunities business plan and proposal for the trail
• Create a range of merchandise including junior, paleontologist shirts, sticker, pages, posters, sustainable and biodegradable
wooden magnets, and more
• Contributed to the ideation & concepts of some of the site specific projects including the trail digital field guide

Zev Landes World Migatory Day Illustrator.jpg

UNDP World Migratory Day Postcard series

Zev was commissioned by the UNDP, through The Parrotfish Collective, to create an artwork to celebrate World Migratory Bird Day.
Zev developed a series of vintage postcards to showcase seven charismatic migratory bird species that visit Sri Lanka each year.

Wilpattu National Park 2021-2022 - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit & Department of Wildlife Conservation Sri Lanka

Zev was commissioned as part of the project on ‘Supporting Wilpattu National Park and Influence Zone Management in Sri Lanka Project’ implemented by GIZ and the Department of Wildlife Conservation by The Parrotfish Collective. Zev worked as consultant and lead creative on the rebranding and development of interpretation and educational resources for Wilapttu National Park, Sri Lanka including:
• Redesigning 3 interpretive visitors centers
• Creation of text-based and patch style logo
• Creation of a visual style guide
• Creation of printed interpret materials
• Creation of Park signage
• Creation of mascots
• Creation of educational activity books, and other community outreach materials • Creation of conservation based kids book

Wild Whittlesea 2024 - City of Whittlesea Council

Zev was approached by the Conservation Interpretation team at Whittlesea council to create a full visual brand identity for Whittlesea Council conservation and community engagement programs.We also created a series of attractive patches/stickers/designs to showcase the animals and plants that are special to Whittlesea Council.The project was to create something that was not just visually appealing, but through research and best interpretation design and communications practice, ensured the design was both impactful and connected the audience (the community) with the story (local native wildlife and wild spaces). Zev worked closely with the conservation and interpretive team to learn about the species and find the most effective way to create something for their educational and outreach programs.

Creative Workshops

Zev has run a number of successful creative workshops for groups ranging in ages from little kids to adults. Some of the workshops have been connected directly to exhibitions or other projects allowing the client another avenue to engage the community with a topic.The topics of the workshops have included “how to cartoon...” “how to create effective and impactful conservation communication” and “how to make things funny”

The underlying themes of the workshops are encouraging people to enjoy and play with their creativity and to think about how they can make a positive impact on their audience no matter their job or creative method.

Haliskia peterseni 2024 - Kronosaurus Korner Museum

Zev worked with leading pterosaur palaeontologist Adele Pentland and Kronosaurus Korner Museum (Richmond, Queensland) to create a character based artwork and range of inspiring merchandise to help celebrate and communicate to a wide audience the discovery and unveiling of Australia's newest pterosaur: Haliskia.The range had the duel aim of creating a character that would capture the imagination of a general public, (encouraging them to then find out more and delve deeper into the science) and contribute to the place making and brand awareness of Kronosaurus Korner.

Keep us safe - Give us space 2023 - DEECA - Victorian Government

Zev was commissioned by the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action and Australian Southern Right Whale expert Dr Kasey Stamation to develop Whale nursery boater awareness signage and outreach materials to go up at all boat ramps. The work was based on community based social marketing and behaviour change principles and involved research with the audience and stakeholders considering attitudes, benefits, and barriers of the issue.Work was expanded to include the creation of educational and outreach materials

Say No To Bushmeat Campaign

Zev worked as creative director on the "Say No to Bushmeat" awareness and behavior change campaign.
Working through Parrotfish Collective, the campaign was run in collaboration with the Lanka Environment Fund, Leopocon, and SCAR (Small Cat Advocacy and Research). The campaign aimed to curb the demand for bush meat by illuminating the true costs of ordering a traditional bush meat curry. It educates their audience on the negative effects of the industry on local biodiversity by highlighting the impacts of snaring and by-catch.

Salty Swamis Sri Lanka

A Surf brand, brought to life by Zev Landes and co-founded with two local friends. With a cafe and surf store, the Salty Swami brand represents the surf community of Sri Lanka. Zev continues to contribute creative content, merchandise design and business direction to help see the Salty Swami’s project come to life.

Sri Lanka National Surfing Team Design

A broad patron toward the surfing community in Sri Lanka, Zev contributed through event management, creative design and story-telling. This included designing the official Olympic surfing team branding in direct collaboration with the countries leading athletes helping to bring their hopes and dreams to life.
This passion for visual story-telling in the community has continued in his association within the Phillip Island and Victorian surf communities.

Zev Landes Phillip Island environment illustration.jpg

Phillip Island artwork

Zev has created of series of artworks and merchandise that celebrates the unique surfing lifestyle and culture of Phillip Island. These artworks bring to life the richness of the local community, the natural environment and local wildlife in a number of accessible formats. His work is sold at the visitor information center and other site across the island.

Zev Landes Environmental Illustrator.jpg

The Parrotfish Collective

Zev is a Co-founder and ongoing creative contributor to Parrotfish Collective, a volunteer-based group of wildlife enthusiasts turned conservation communicators. We focus on developing engaging educational content that bridges the gap between conservation professionals on the frontlines and the public. Through our work we aim to re-communicate science in visual and creative ways.

Our mission is to inspire and empower communities with knowledge, thereby providing the impetus to achieve lasting change. Through our work we hope to create an informed community that can be mobilized towards environmental protection.

Prima Wood Fins

Zev acts as a business and creative consultant to the sustainable surfboard brand, Prima Wood Fins.

Surfboard Artwork

As artist and creator, Zev Landes has collaborated with surfboard shapers including Ross Wiliams, Gary Mcneill and Chris Williams to create artwork for surfboards.

Colombo Wetlands

Urban Fishing Cat Conservation Project Partnership

Having identified the potential to build a solid working relationship with the Project, we entered into collaborations surrounding creating awareness materials for community engagement programs. This partnership has yielded several different materials including mascots for the urban wetlands, development of merchandize to contribute towards fundraising, assisting in documenting fieldwork within study sites and an illustrated guide to the urban wetlands of Colombo. This project was funded by the UNDP.

DoDoBeBe - I’ve Got a Massive Missile

I've Got a Massive Missile is an animated music video directed by Cassie Machado for DoDoBeBe, an alter ego project by Basement Jaxx/Felix Buxton satirising the present day political theatre and Trumpism.

IUCN sustainable whale watching awareness posters

Marine Species Illustrated installation and posters encouraging more sustainable whale watching practices for Mirissa Harbor whale watching tourist location, Sri Lanka.