A creative way of promoting National Parks
Amber Share found a way to showcase her design talent and love of the outdoors
Twenty years ago, I was waiting for a flight in Los Angeles. At the departure gate, I met a couple who were in their late 40s/early 50s, on their way home after three weeks touring New Zealand and Australia.
I was impressed - as back then it wasn’t often you met an American couple who took THREE WEEKS of vacation - unless they were retired.
“How exciting!” I said. “What did you think?”
I wondered which country they preferred, and if they had seen kangaroos or gone to the Outback.
“Well,” the wife began, “we had a really lousy meal on our way to Philip Island in Australia.”
“Philip Island, with all the little penguins?” I asked.
“Yes, the dinner on our way there was terrible.”
Right. Three weeks. Two countries. Different animals and scenery and culture.
And the first thing this woman commented on was a lousy meal.
But it’s not just Australia and New Zealand that can get this reaction.
Some visitors to the US National Parks - which offer an incredible assortment of natural wonders - are hard to impress, too.
While many dream of visiting Yosemite, The Rocky Mountains, Arches, The Grand Canyon, Acadia, etc, others fail to appreciate their beauty.
And seeing bad reviews of National Parks gave a graphic designer named Amber Share an idea…
Amber Share had a problem.
She wanted to hone her craft as an illustrator and designer, and attract freelance work for her business.
As a lover of the outdoors, she thought about creating illustrations of US National Parks.
But there are many artists who have illustrated the parks. Amber wanted to do something different. She wanted to create national park illustrations – with a twist.
She then stumbled on some negative reviews of national parks – and that gave her an idea.
She decided to combine retro-style illustrations and legitimate bad reviews for each of the 62 US national parks. She called the project ‘Subpar Parks.’
Subpar Parks features illustrations and one-star reviews of each national park.
This includes Grand Teton National Park:
California’s Yosemite National Park
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
Amber started sharing her illustrations of the parks online, and quickly gathered a following. She’s now branched into creating illustrations of international parks, including Canada’s Banff National Park
The UK’s famed Lake District
And Australia’s Port Campbell (Twelve Apostles)
Her series of creative and fun posters showcase the stunning natural beauty of parks, her artistic talents – and remind us that you can’t please everyone.
“The project is satirical,” she said. “The reviews are real. Maybe some were written in jest, but I really made an effort to filter those out. I did not write any of these reviews and I don't agree with them... That's the point. I love the parks.”
In addition to showcasing the beauty of the outdoors, Amber hopes her work encourages people “to laugh at negativity and not take it too seriously.”
And Amber’s favorite park?
The Grand Canyon. The place one reviewer described as:
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