Moth infographics: paper-cut process

It's June. The sun is shining, the studio hot, and I'm surrounded by hundreds of paper-cut objects — wings, antenna, leaves, cocoons, and tiny miniature clothes — scattered across the desk and floor.

I'm working on an exciting new project in partnership with Butterfly Conservation as part of their very first #MothsMatter campaign.

The BC team have brought me on board to curate a design-led event with the goal of getting people of all ages excited about moths, and I've chosen paper-cutting as my medium of preference.

After all, who doesn't love a paper-cut moth?

The cause

Moths are so much more than winged insects that flutter around at night (or if you're really unlucky, eat holes in the clothes in your wardrobe).

Moths are crucial to habitats, ecosystems and food chains. And like canaries in a coal mine, they can show us early signs of negative environmental impacts. If the population of moths drop, an ecosystem is in trouble.

And that's what this campaign is all about.

The idea

After a series of calls with Emma (the lovely Moth Engagement Officer at Butterfly Conservation), we decided to plan an event for National Insect Week 2022 that would consist of two parts:

Part I: A large-scale infographic board showing fun facts about moths in an interactive, paper-cut format.

Part II: A moth-making workshop where children could craft their own paper Garden Tiger moths and take them home.

The factoids

Whenever I create an infographic, my goal is to make complex ideas beautifully simple and easy to understand.

This all starts with the content. Butterfly Conservation sent this short list of facts as a starting point:

• There are more day-flying moths than butterflies
• There are 2500 moth species in the UK
• Only 2 species of moths eat your clothes!
• Many animals rely on moths for food, such as birds, mice, bats, beetles and hedgehogs.
• The life cycle of a moth (eggs > caterpillar > cocoon > moth)
• Moths play a ‘secret role’ as crucial pollinators for flowers and plants

I created a canvas in Adobe Illustrator (matching the dimensions of my large sheet of Birch-faced plywood) and went through the motions of the design process; combining playful illustrations with typography and diagrams, and laying it all out in a four-column grid.

Colour palette

After the content was decided upon and the layout finished, I had to figure out a colour palette.

I asked the BC team which UK species would be the most relevant to the campaign, and they wanted to specifically shine a spotlight on the Garden tiger moth, an iconic, beautiful yet endangered day-flying moth. What a perfect starting point for inspiration!

Since everything was going to be crafted from paper, I needed a range of stocks that would also fit this colour palette. Luckily Fedrigoni UK has a beautiful range, and very generously donated all of the paper for the infographics and moth-making workshop. Legends!

Paper cutting

So, the design is complete and the Fedrigoni paper has arrived.

Next comes the paper-cutting process, using my trusty Cricut (a digital paper-cutter) which I use to plot out and cut the graphics layer-by-layer, colour-by-colour.

Side note: The Cricut has been an absolute game-changer for my artwork, enabling me to cut large batches of paper insects which I sell via my online shop.

I started with the minature clothes (1:12 scale) — a pair of moth-eaten socks, a chomped-up scarf, and a holey jumper, all carefully attached to miniature clothes hangers (sourced from Etsy). These will accompany the message about the number of moth species that actually eat our clothes - only two!

Let the drilling commence

The plan is to make the four stages of the metamorphosis cycle moveable, so they can be rearranged to test the knowledge of children (and adults!) at the event.

As for the number of moths in the UK, I wanted the 0's to be taken on and off so people could guess the total (approximately 2500).

But the biggest challenge of the infographic board was how to make it interactive...

My initial idea was to use magnets, but I soon remembered these are a big no-no for young children! So after some time pondering, I decided to try small dowel plugs. I made a quick prototype with some old plywood... and BOOM! They worked perfectly with the papercut components.

From a visual design perspective, I’m pleasantly surprised with how the dowel came out. I was imagining they might have appeared clunky, but in actual fact they give the whole infographic board a clean, minimal ‘Scandinavian design' feel when paired with the birch-faced ply.

I’ll be playing around with dowel plugs in future design installation projects…

The final stage was to carefully fix all of the papercut elements onto the plywood (measure twice, stick once!).

As with all of these things, I wish I had more time to plan, cut, and make. The more time I spent building and finalising the design, the more ideas came to my head.

But for now, I'm seeing this as a 'first prototype' and I'm actually really happy with the final outcome. I'm, super excited to see this being put to use for the #MothsMatters pop-up event!

So, next stop is Wildwood Trust with the Butterfly Conservation team!

The pop-up event will take place during National Insect Week 2022 in the heart of the beautiful 40-acre ancient woodland and centre of excellence for the conservation of British wildlife.

Here, we will be teaching about moths and why they matter and invite children to get involved in making a paper sculpture of their very own.

I'll be sharing another blog post about the event, where we will be displaying the interactive infographic and inviting people of all ages to make paper moths of their very own.

Stay tuned!