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Save the Sharks

A shark-shaped awareness brochure on why sharks matter and what threatens them

The Save the Sharks brochure held in its translucent red folder, a single shark silhouette showing through.

Challenge

Show people what sharks really are: why they matter, what threatens them, and what anyone can do to protect them.

Team
Individual project
My Role
Research
Sketching
Visual design
Prototyping
Final production
Timeline
Feb 2022 – Jun 2022

Problem statement

Sharks play a vital role in maintaining the balance of marine ecosystems, yet they are increasingly under threat. Among these threats, bycatch is one of the most significant, but it remains largely unfamiliar to the public.

Since the release of Jaws, sharks have also been widely misunderstood and negatively portrayed. Even today, many people still believe that all sharks are aggressive or dangerous to humans.

Aim

This brochure aims to present factual information about sharks, challenge common stereotypes, and explain why sharks matter, what threats they face, and what actions can be taken to protect them.

A scuba diver photographs a thresher shark caught in a drift gillnet.
A scuba diver photographs a thresher shark caught in a drift gillnet as bycatch
Photo credits: Mark Conlin/VW PICS/UIG via Getty Images

Cover

Cover mechanism

The cover uses a multiply overlay effect with a red translucent folder. When the brochure is placed inside the folder, only part of the image is visible: a single shark silhouette. Once the brochure is taken out, the red fishing net appears, revealing the shark as trapped within it.

Outline of the unfolded brochure: a shark 810 mm long and 280 mm deep, with the folded cover panel shaded at its middle.
Unfolded, the brochure is the whole shark, 810 × 280 mm. Folded, it closes to the shaded panel.
The brochure’s cover half out of the red folder: above the folder, the shark tangled in red lines; inside it, only a dark silhouette.

01Out of the folder

The effect after removing the brochure from the folder: the red lines of the net appear around the shark.

The back of the folded brochure, its shark-shaped panels showing the pink and blue inner pages.

02The back

With the brochure’s back removed from the folder, the full image and message are revealed.

The first page of the brochure, shaped like a shark’s head, with a quote in Chinese.

03The first page

The first content the reader sees after taking out the brochure is a quote that I find deeply moving.

“We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion.

They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.”

Henry Beston, The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod

Inner page

Divided by vertical folds, the brochure uses red and blue areas to guide readers from basic knowledge to threats, global action, and personal responsibility.

The whole inner page unfolded: a shark in pink-red and blue, divided by folds into four parts, from All About Sharks at the head to What Can We Do at the tail.
Part 1: All About Sharks
Part 1, the shark’s head: key facts about sharks in red, and a food chain in blue below.

This section introduces sharks and explains why they matter.

The red area uses the shark’s body as a visual framework to present key facts about sharks, including their diversity, endangered status, body structure, and biological characteristics.

In the blue area below, the food chain diagram explains how sharks function within the marine ecosystem, and why their presence is important for maintaining ecological balance.

Part 2: They Are in Danger Now
Part 2, the dorsal fin and body: threats to sharks in blue above, and a comparison of fishing nets and their bycatch in red.

This section explains the main threats sharks are facing today.

The upper blue part introduces shark trade and human impacts, including fin and meat trade, plastic pollution, and global warming.

The red area focuses on bycatch, the most overlooked threat. I used data visualization to compare different types of fishing nets, showing their bycatch rates, mortality rates, and possible improvements.

Part 3: The World in Action
Part 3, in blue: marine protected areas and what they do for people and for sharks.

This section introduces marine protected areas as one of the key responses to shark conservation.

The white elements focus on the benefits for people.

The red highlights show the ecological benefits of marine protected areas.

Part 4: What Can We Do
Part 4, the tail: everyday actions for shark conservation, from sustainable seafood to less single-use plastic.

The final section shifts the focus to individual action.

It shows how shark conservation can be connected to everyday choices, from choosing sustainable seafood to reducing single-use plastics and supporting legal protection.

The postcard among purple asters: a line drawing of sharks on one side, the story handwritten in Chinese on the other.

Postcard

The brochure also comes with a postcard, where I share the personal story behind why I wanted to create this project. It adds a more intimate layer to the work, connecting the issue of shark conservation with my own motivation as a designer.

May I never stop moving towards what I dream of.

The brochure unfolded and held up in two hands: a whole shark in pink-red and blue, from head to tail.
The brochure, unfolded

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