Home is Sinking
Highlighting environmental threats to the Venetian Lagoon through a gentle, child-friendly narrative.
Project type
Book Design,
Printing, Binding
semester
SS 2022
Supervisors
Prof. Dr. Giorgio Camuffo,
Prof. Dr. Marcello Barison,
Prof. Dr. Andrea Facchetti
Category
Illustration and Graphics
A Story about Disappearing Saltmarshes
About
The project Lagunando addressed the environmental degradation of the Venetian Lagoon, a process mainly caused by human and industrial impacts. The course was conducted in collaboration with the Venetian Environmental Association V.I.T.A.L. during the summer semester of 2022 at the Free University of Bolzano.
The Story
In the story, a rat named Raffaele and a seagull named Ernesto form an unlikely friendship. Their natural habitat, the salt marshes, is slowly disappearing due to rising water levels in the Venetian Lagoon. Together with the other animals of the lagoon, the two friends begin a protest to drive away the cruise ships, which represent another major cause of habitat loss.
Illustration Style
The book combines manually drawn color pencil illustrations with digital black-and-white images rendered without halftones. This deliberate contrast emphasizes the tension between the lagoon’s animals’ vivid lives and the decaying environment that surrounds them.
Discover More
Read the complete story of Raffaele and Ernesto, or explore my other tale, presented as part of a fictional tourist guide to Isola San Francesco del Deserto in the Venetian Lagoon.
Sofie Neudecker 