Originally, I imagined artwork with mostly dust and dirt with new growth peeking through. However, the concern was color and emotion; dirt doesn't invite a positive audience the same way a pretty flower does. So, I played around with the concept of flowers growing and bright, natural blues and greens with yellow as an accent pop.
To make the tile stand out further, I searched native prairie wild flowers near the Kansas and Missouri border. Having grown up in Missouri myself, I had a small list of hopeful candidates. Coneflowers have been a long time favorite of mine and I was happy to find are native to Kansas as well. So, I pitched the coneflower as the subject and a bold geometric sans-serif font for the title. KCUR loved the blend of a clean typeface (as opposed to hand drawn) along side a painted illustration. Thus, the tile was born.
With the release of any new media there are ads that support it. I created website pieces for KCUR and NPR as well as digital organic ads and sponsored ads. Up From Dust was featured on NPR's website and the tile can be found on Spotify or any other podcast provider.
I chose to illustrate a full scene for this project, to make the tile art feel more organic and for additional wide-screen uses. The full art is used on a few digital assets I created, such as the landing homepage on KCUR's website. This method is a great way to tell a story further; a treat for viewers who take the time and effort to look up more about the podcast.
Thank you KCUR and KNS News Service for this opportunity.